Monday, December 7, 2015
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
A non profit web design case study Latest Post
Recently Big Orange Planet launched a website called Vasectoman for a local Colorado non-profit foundation. It was kind of a unique proposition to get involved in, but we are very happy with the end results.
A unique proposition in the sense that the challenge was to make getting a vasectomy a cool, fun thing to do, which of course it isn’t. (not at the time at any rate.) Our clients were very helpful in this endeavor. A solid sense of humor was a big feature of the build process and is also a prevalent feature of the website itself. The marketing messages are punchy yet funny at the same time.
And some of the embedded youtube videos are downright hilarious.
From a developmental standpoint we utilized a WordPress backbone with use of a few key plugins to add required custom functionality.A key feature on site is ability for users to search locations, and of course for the site administrators to manage and upload those locations in the database.
In addition ability to accept credit card donations was needed, which was accomplished using Stripe as a payment gateway.
With a full suite of content management tools at their disposal the website stakeholders were given complete operational control of the administrative backend.
Responsive web design techniques were used to ensure cross device compatability and optimal page display regardless of the access device type.
A trust inducing blue color scheme was adopted during the design phase, with the website being more orientated towards men in general (although there is a section for women who clearly can be concerned about the subject matter of Vasectoman.)
Finding suitable imagery was one of the more involved aspects of the project as a whole. A key dynamic of the site was to appeal to as wide a ranging demographic as possible- men of all ages, race, and family background.
With a lot of input from our client, we secured enough images of suitably varied individuals and familes.
Blogger Post
Post
A unique proposition in the sense that the challenge was to make getting a vasectomy a cool, fun thing to do, which of course it isn’t. (not at the time at any rate.) Our clients were very helpful in this endeavor. A solid sense of humor was a big feature of the build process and is also a prevalent feature of the website itself. The marketing messages are punchy yet funny at the same time.
And some of the embedded youtube videos are downright hilarious.
From a developmental standpoint we utilized a WordPress backbone with use of a few key plugins to add required custom functionality.A key feature on site is ability for users to search locations, and of course for the site administrators to manage and upload those locations in the database.
In addition ability to accept credit card donations was needed, which was accomplished using Stripe as a payment gateway.
With a full suite of content management tools at their disposal the website stakeholders were given complete operational control of the administrative backend.
Responsive web design techniques were used to ensure cross device compatability and optimal page display regardless of the access device type.
A trust inducing blue color scheme was adopted during the design phase, with the website being more orientated towards men in general (although there is a section for women who clearly can be concerned about the subject matter of Vasectoman.)
Finding suitable imagery was one of the more involved aspects of the project as a whole. A key dynamic of the site was to appeal to as wide a ranging demographic as possible- men of all ages, race, and family background.
With a lot of input from our client, we secured enough images of suitably varied individuals and familes.
Blogger Post
Post
Saturday, August 3, 2013
New Big Orange Planet site launch
We recently launched our new website, constructed in html5 on a wordpress backbone- we are very proud of it.
The new website design can be viewed here.
Sarah has been particularly instrumental in pushing us to this next level, and her graphic design skills have reached a remarkable point
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Adopting Mobile Web Development Standards is Now Critical for Designers
http://bit.ly/uWvfzF
Websites are ever increasingly being viewed on mobile devices. The total percentage of all website visits in the US in August of this year was 6.8%. Internet enabled phones accounted for roughly two thirds of this traffic with tablet devices accounting for the lion’s share of the remainder.(stats per Comscore) Global non-PC internet usage was 3%in 2010 but will reach 15% by 2015.(Cisco Visual Networking Index)So what does this paradigm shift in the nature of our online behavior hold in store for web developers?
One of the early effects has been the web development community’s recent
shift away from usage of Adobe Flash driven websites. This has been
largely attributable to increased takeup of the iphone and ipad and
Apple’s longstanding refusal to support Flash player on those devices. The
reasons for this have been widely well documented.
But even in devices such as Android whose most recent incarnations support
Flash Player, the interactive user experience is lessened in a ‘mouse-less
environment’.
This aside, how websites display in the mobile realm is sure to become an
ever growing concern of both site owners and consumers alike. With growing
usage there will come growing attention. As a result web developers who do
not jump on board with optimizing their site builds for both PC and mobile
devices will get left behind.
If one is to look at a random selection of websites on various devices and
operating systems, a wide range of display quality variations will soon be
detected.
Illegible text, distorted images and skewed tables among other things are
some of the device type discrepancies that may be noted.
So what sorts of techniques can be adopted to ensure optimal display of
any given website regardless of device type?
There are a few different approaches been used:
1.Develop separate site versions for mobile devices and PCs. This involves plenty of extra coding- i.e. two sites for the price of one. However it can produce excellent results with a script running which decides which version the viewer will see. This allows for a rich web experience even on a small screen.
2. Define the site for mobile devices using CSS. This can be a much simpler solution to code when implemented correctly. This can often involve just showing the left portion of the site on a phone without a noticeable break- horizontal scrolling can be used to view the rest of the site in smaller screen environments.
3. Utilize responsive design techniques. This involves effectively slimming down the website as the resolution decreases. Text aggregates into thinner and thus readable columns, while images also ‘go on a diet’. This can look great when done well.
4. Minimize the site down to bare bones by removing images and style features. This is probably the easiest of all these approaches to implement, but has its pros and cons as they all do.
As the ‘mobile web’ continues to gain traction, we will doubtless see other methods added to this list and further development of those methods listed above. To ensure a successful future, those making a living in the World of Web Design should sit up and take note.
Websites are ever increasingly being viewed on mobile devices. The total percentage of all website visits in the US in August of this year was 6.8%. Internet enabled phones accounted for roughly two thirds of this traffic with tablet devices accounting for the lion’s share of the remainder.(stats per Comscore) Global non-PC internet usage was 3%in 2010 but will reach 15% by 2015.(Cisco Visual Networking Index)So what does this paradigm shift in the nature of our online behavior hold in store for web developers?
One of the early effects has been the web development community’s recent
shift away from usage of Adobe Flash driven websites. This has been
largely attributable to increased takeup of the iphone and ipad and
Apple’s longstanding refusal to support Flash player on those devices. The
reasons for this have been widely well documented.
But even in devices such as Android whose most recent incarnations support
Flash Player, the interactive user experience is lessened in a ‘mouse-less
environment’.
This aside, how websites display in the mobile realm is sure to become an
ever growing concern of both site owners and consumers alike. With growing
usage there will come growing attention. As a result web developers who do
not jump on board with optimizing their site builds for both PC and mobile
devices will get left behind.
If one is to look at a random selection of websites on various devices and
operating systems, a wide range of display quality variations will soon be
detected.
Illegible text, distorted images and skewed tables among other things are
some of the device type discrepancies that may be noted.
So what sorts of techniques can be adopted to ensure optimal display of
any given website regardless of device type?
There are a few different approaches been used:
1.Develop separate site versions for mobile devices and PCs. This involves plenty of extra coding- i.e. two sites for the price of one. However it can produce excellent results with a script running which decides which version the viewer will see. This allows for a rich web experience even on a small screen.
2. Define the site for mobile devices using CSS. This can be a much simpler solution to code when implemented correctly. This can often involve just showing the left portion of the site on a phone without a noticeable break- horizontal scrolling can be used to view the rest of the site in smaller screen environments.
3. Utilize responsive design techniques. This involves effectively slimming down the website as the resolution decreases. Text aggregates into thinner and thus readable columns, while images also ‘go on a diet’. This can look great when done well.
4. Minimize the site down to bare bones by removing images and style features. This is probably the easiest of all these approaches to implement, but has its pros and cons as they all do.
As the ‘mobile web’ continues to gain traction, we will doubtless see other methods added to this list and further development of those methods listed above. To ensure a successful future, those making a living in the World of Web Design should sit up and take note.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
new websites
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Google speaketh
God has spoken:
"(Google Employee) Hi Everybody,
This looks like it's closely related to the issue going on at the thread I've linked below. We realize there's something going on here, and we initially pushed out a fix a while back. There was a little hiccup with the fix, which is probably why the results in Fresno may have gone back up and then back down as addoctane mentioned above.
The team is working on this issue. Stay tuned to the thread below where I will post an update as soon as I hear one.
Thank you all for your persistence!"
So basically google engineer saying there is a disturbance in the force.
Maybe its time i put my innate paranoia to bed (for now at least)
"(Google Employee) Hi Everybody,
This looks like it's closely related to the issue going on at the thread I've linked below. We realize there's something going on here, and we initially pushed out a fix a while back. There was a little hiccup with the fix, which is probably why the results in Fresno may have gone back up and then back down as addoctane mentioned above.
The team is working on this issue. Stay tuned to the thread below where I will post an update as soon as I hear one.
Thank you all for your persistence!"
So basically google engineer saying there is a disturbance in the force.
Maybe its time i put my innate paranoia to bed (for now at least)
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