Public or Private?

This is an issue which I've been struggling with lately: public or private web presence. My Twitter account is public so anyone can read any of my posts and subscribe to follow me. I have no control over who sees what, so I must be careful in publishing. When things are public, you can't divulge too much personal information, including names of people, places you frequent, or even if you're on vacation or not home. I might sound paranoid, but there's a ton of research about how easy we make it for predators and other criminals if we put too much information online. Here's an article from the Examiner further elaborating on that issue. Applications for smart phones that tell where you are at a given time seem ill-advised for that same reason.


If your settings for a given social networking site are set to private, it means you have to accept (or deny if you don't know them or don't wish to be sharing things with them) requests from people who want to "be your friend" or "follow" you before they can see your personal information. For each site, there are varying degrees of privacy options as well. It definitely pays to be discreet by keeping things private when you're on the verge of graduating or seeking employment because more and more employers look to social media to tell them about you.


On the other hand, professionals that rely on networking and word of mouth to get them positions and connections almost need their profiles to be open in order to form those connections. Again, this means that anyone could view your information and other things you share. This is beneficial for networking because other designers, for example, can stumble onto your profile. You just have to remember that other people you may not want to be associated with may be able to leave traces on your pages as well and yet others could obtain personal information about you that you may not even realize you're letting slip.


So is it worth it to keep your web presence - especially on social networking sites - public or should you go private?

Being Absent

I feel like I've been absent from this blog for awhile and there is a reason for that. In addition to it being my last year in college (and now my last semester), I'm also a blogger for La Roche College. Feel free to check out that blog at http://sarahatlrc.blogspot.com


I will begin making more time for this blog again soon though because I am currently in the process of beginning my own website to showcase my design work. Finally! I have a feeling this semester will be a busy one, but I'm hoping it will also be a very memorable one.

Social Networks and How to Use Them

I found on Alexa.com (http://www.alexa.com/topsites/global;0) that the top social networks ranked in the following order as of today: Facebook at #2, YouTube at #3, Blogger.com at #8, Twitter at #9, WordPress.com at #19, LinkedIn at #22, MySpace at #35, Flickr at #37, and Second Life at #3,082.

Facebook is a social media tool for anyone over the age of 13 to connect with other people they know as well as to make new online friends. Facebook users can also "Like" products, people, businesses, activities, and other interests. The like option helps Facebook determine which ads would be good for a certain group of people to see. For example, if a Facebook user liked wedding planning and weddings, Facebook might show that person an ad for bridal gowns or a travel agent or honeymoons. Because Facebook is responsible for placing the ads, the businesses who choose to promote themselves through ads on Facebook do not have direct interaction with the users of Facebook, so user information is never sold. The like button is also a way for the user to claim that they like something, whether it is the post of a friend, a photo, or a page of a business, product, activity or interest. This helps the other users on Facebook (based on your privacy settings) get to know you a little bit better by seeing what you enjoy and what interests you. I think the target audience of Facebook includes users 18-34, but I know a lot of people over the age of 50 are starting to use it as well as there have been many jokes about "the old people taking over."

Twitter is a social media tool that allows the user to pass information around the web faster and easier without the added applications of Facebook and MySpace. Unless you have a private account only viewable to friends, your tweets (posts) will be made accessible to the entire world as you post. As Twitter says, "You are what you Tweet!" As with Facebook, Twitter's services are available for anyone over the age of 13. Recently new to Twitter is the ability to add a location to your tweets as you post them. Twitter allows you to follow any person, business, or group and see all of their posts. In return, based on your privacy settings, anyone can follow yours as well. As I am a graphic designer, I'm following a lot of graphic designers and design firms. They tend to share a lot of helpful links, including free fonts, free images, helpful tips, tutorials, and marketing strategies. Twitter's audience is a bit more diverse than Facebook's. I believe the target audience to be professionals, approximately ages 25-44. However, more mature businesspeople are starting to use it for their marketing strategies as well. The linked article "Twitter Has a Business Model: 'Promoted Tweets'" suggests that Twitter is gathering revenue from companies like Starbucks who tweet special offers using Twitter. Companies would pay based on resonance, or how much the advertising tweet is retweeted (passed around). Professional accounts are also coming into existence and will allow one company to post from multiple employees.

MySpace is a social media tool most similar to Facebook. It existed prior to Facebook and so many of the 25-35 year olds today might have started out on MySpace. I briefly had a MySpace account, but I already had Facebook at the time, and I quickly saw the advantages of Facebook over MySpace. Over the years, MySpace has been becoming a less reliable source of conveying who a person is online. I'm not saying Facebook is perfect and has found a way around all the issues, but I think MySpace is generally seen as the less powerful of the two. Even the Alexa ratings will support that theory. As I see it, MySpace allows everything a user posts to either be available to everyone or only friends and a MySpace user does not have to tell the truth about who they are. Facebook allows you to share even one status with everyone, no one, some friends, all friends, or block it from certain friends but not all friends. Facebook offers many more privacy options and that's why I think it is the more trustworthy of the two. There have been problems with fake names and accounts or spam accounts on Facebook, but the company has taken the initiative to try to weed them out, unlike MySpace which seems much more like a free-for-all. With all the customization options MySpace offers in a profile, any given profile can end up looking quite trashy (from a web page point of view). This is where Facebook's sleek and clean design helps it project a more reliable image. MySpace's audience is most likely kids that are too young for Facebook or people that already had MySpace accounts when Facebook became popular.

I'd never heard about Second Life until I was researching for this post. Going to the website didn't actually tell me that much about it except that as a user, you could create avatars and interact. There are also paid accounts where you can do more things like sell items. Most of what I learned about Second Life, I found in a Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life. I would assume the audience for Second Life would be the more entrepreneurial type or the teenager interested in the latest avatar technology. Alexa.com reflects that the highest audience is most likely 18-24 year olds.

Businesses use social networks in a variety of ways including incorporating social media in their marketing campaigns. Social media for marketing is very popular because it is free (for the most part) and it gets any business a lot of exposure because of the number of people using the internet. This number has increased with the increase in smart phones as well because now you can be on the internet anywhere. As a graphic designer, I already have a portfolio hosted on a website (though I am in the process of making my own website to host it) and I have this blog. I don't use many tactics to market my portfolio and blog, but social media is one I use. Interconnecting your social media is bound to have the greatest effect on your advertising reach. That is to say, I hooked up my blog to my Twitter to my Facebook. The result is that any time I make a new blog post, it sends a short summary to my Twitter and posts it automatically and the Twitter post is sent directly to my Facebook account where it posts my Twitter post advertising my original blog post. My Flickr and YouTube accounts work the same way. This makes it a lot easier to maximize the potential of social media because you're getting the same word out three different ways and it's automatic instead of you having to create three unique posts. Every time a post on a social media is made, it is accessible to the world and featured on search engines as long as the content is not marked as private. Personally, I keep my Facebook account private as it is used for my personal ventures. I would never add a client on my personal Facebook page, but I keep my other accounts professional enough for it not to be an issue. I would not be inclined to use MySpace for marketing my website or blog because I see it as being the most unprofessional of the social media tools. I probably wouldn't use Second Life either. I would use all my existing social media: YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google Buzz / Google Reader. They are all connected, so I could very easily make many posts advertising my website and blog and the new content on each. It is important to make the most of each post and make it memorable or appealing enough for someone to want to click on it from just a short blurb.

Internet Sales Tax Debate

As a consumer, I am inclined to hold the position of not wanting sales tax on online purchases. I buy products from Amazon because I think they are a good deal, though I'm not fond of the added shipping charges. When I buy an item from Amazon (I usually buy books online), I weigh the price of the item plus the shipping against the price with tax in a real store or online store such as Borders to decide where I should purchase the item.

However, from a government perspective, and the perspective I will support in this discussion, I believe every online company should charge a sales tax. At first I thought that filtering the sales tax to each of the states would be confusing and maybe even add an element of confusion to the easy task of transferring information online. I also thought that paying a tax based on the location of the store employees would be insanely complex too, especially in terms of stores that have bases in multiple places, possibly including foreign countries. However, our book for this class said that an online banking transaction costs $0.04 versus more than $1 for a transaction at a branch, which was greater than a 25x factor of improvement (page 11). Additionally, screening for potential credit card fraud is more complex than evaluating sales tax rules, according to the article "Internet Retailers Outgrow Their Sales Tax Exemption," published in 2009. In the early days when this issue was first debated in 1992, technology was not developed enough to even make it worth suggesting that huge online stores like Amazon should be including sales tax. Now that nearly 20 years have passed and technology has furthered itself so much, it really is time to bring up the discussion of online sales tax once more. Over the years, online stores that have physical locations, like Barnes and Noble, have been forced to add sales tax for online transactions. If some online businesses have to face this "disadvantage," then all online businesses should have to include the sales tax that you would find at any other bricks and mortar store in which you shopped. When Borders was in the process of finding out whether it needed to impose an online sales tax, it was said that the court rejected the argument that Borders and Borders Online were two separate companies, according to the article "Online Tax Debate Heats Up." That argument was because the courts had ruled that if an online store had a physical store, the online store must charge sales tax as well. However, most if not all online stores have some type of storage place or even home office or hub (even for the computer system it takes to run the site), so I think for the sake of fairness, that should count as a bricks and mortar store. The best way to solve this issue is to impose a sales tax for all online shopping, the same as you would in actual stores. It would be a change, and one we're not necessarily used to in online shopping, but after a certain amount of grumbling, everyone would accept it and move on. While a fixed rate / universal sales tax would be the quickest and easiest solution, there would be a humongous debate on what it should be because different states have different rates. Additionally, that would still put online stores like Amazon on a different playing field from online stores that already charge the sales tax because they have a physical location. I feel the best solution is developing and implementing software that could calculate the appropriate sales tax for online shopping over the next few years. While it would take longer to implement, it would be more fair in the long run, to consumers and to states (who are the ones who see this money and can hopefully use it instead of adding or raising other taxes to increase revenue).

Template Websites Revisited: The Portfolio

Templates have their place in website design. It can make things easier and much less complicated for the designer. The code is all right there and if anything, only minor adjustments will need to be made. You can have a much quicker turnaround on site if you use templates and you can afford to price your sites cheaper. However, is it cheating to leave the site exactly how it is designed and only add content? Depending on the client and depending on how well you think the existing design works for the client, no. On the other hand, we are designers as a career and lifestyle choice. How does your conscience feel about this decision? Personally, mine feels like crap. I can see that template sites have their uses, and while I can work with them fine, I don't feel they have a place in my life. Namely, I don't feel I should use one for my portfolio site.

My portfolio site represents me as a designer, as a creative, and as a person who is both creative and logical. My logic says a template portfolio site doesn't show your creativity to either problem solve or present yourself uniquely. My creativity says a template portfolio site puts you in a square box that's super glued shut that you have to design your way out of...in a week (the due date of my portfolio site for class) when you already have a 55-60 hour work week. While using a template for my portfolio site would make it "easier" in that I would have places to quickly drop my pieces into, it also means I have to find exactly the right template to do that. Now, I don't like to be pigeonholed, as I'm sure most creatives do not. How many perfect portfolio site templates are out there that can represent me as a designer, uniquely? If you guessed the answer was one, you're right. Now how do I find that one? I have no idea. It needs to be free because I'm not going to pay money for something I'm not going to use when I'm a college student with no income. It needs to show my personality because that's one of the things prospective employers look for in a portfolio site of someone they're looking to hire. I read in an article that I have previously mentioned in another post that employers first look at the website design. If it's total crap or uninteresting, it's over. If it's at least tolerable to good or excellent, they look at the work.

Where does this leave me?

Qualities of Portfolio Sites

http://www.alexbuga.com/v9/#welcome

I love this site and I keep coming back to it. As soon as I get to the site, I start to get a feel for the kind of person Alex is and what kind of work he does. Even though the navigation is not openly labeled, it's easy enough to figure out that you probably need to click on something. When you hover over something and it responds, you know it's a link. The responses are clear, so it's not hard. For example, if you hover on the door to the table, the door opens and you are left hovering over an iPad that says "Portfolio." The work is displayed on an iPad with a project lis ton the left. This is fantastic in the way that it utilizes technology! It not only shows that Alex knows about the iPad and can use it to display his work, but that he can design specifically for it as well. The only really bad things about this site is that the work can't be zoomed in upon (and the work is pretty small considering) and that there is an annoying autoscroll feature so every time you move your mouse, the page moves. You can, however, turn this feature off. I believe the site is made using javascript, though originally I thought Flash. It's weird that there's no text (though if you go to view, source, there is a lot of behind the scenes information that is rather interesting, including his concept for the site). It's about this time, when you are wondering where the text is that you see the ab in the top left and decide to hover or click on it to see if it does anything since it's at the top. After dragging it out, it is apparent that the links are there! Clicking on the "About Me" section results in finally finding text! I have to admit, the minimal text does leave you to focus on the work and his skills as a web designer. However, it also leaves you to wonder about a lot of his projects because of the lack of background coupled with the small imagery. While I like the way his photo section is laid out, having to close the pop-up window really is a pain. I want to look around and see how different designers solve the problem of enlarging their work and having to close windows to get back to the main gallery.

http://alexarts.ru/en/index.html

What grabbed me about this website was several things. The colorful yet not overdone bubbles (that fit with his logo) are cheery and modern ways of creating links that are easy enough to navigate, but different than average. The background picture is kind of muted and because the sky is blurred out (even though it's to focus more on the site content), it makes the site kind of depressing in a way. I really like how Alex's portfolio is displayed. This is one way of solving the problem the last site had. Even though the work samples are smaller, they are large views of small parts of the whole of the design. Different views are featured by simply clicking through the arrows for each piece of work. If you wish to have a view of the work on a larger scale, you just need to click on "view website" and it will launch in a new window. However, you can see enough details that it isn't necessary to make the extra window pop up unless you're extremely interested or curious because you get a really good idea of the project from the main work gallery itself. I also like the way he words his portfolio and the casual yet knowledgeable tone he takes. I like that there is a +1 to show that he has added a new piece to his portfolio. Faults of this site include the casual and not grammatically correct text. Some of this might be because of the language difference, but I don't think all of it is.

http://www.serialcut.com

There are some aspects of this site I really like, and others I do not, which makes it come out kind of middle-of-the-road, but I thought it was worth reviewing. Because of the varying backgrounds, the text, links, and even the logo are hard to read or impossible to read at times! However, the large pictures of their work are fantastic. If you click on overview, the page is full of thumbnails and the work is broken down by category (again, difficult to read). It's kind of weird that the search bar floats to end wherever the line of thumbnails ends on a given page because it makes it seem somewhat out of place at times. I like that if you hover over an image, it gives a brief summary of the contents of the project so you know that when the picture enlarges if you will have to look for a way to look at the other pictures in the series or not. It took me awhile to realize that there were invisible-until-hovered-over shapes in the form of a minus and a plus to go forward or backward within the gallery. One of the things I like most about this site are that the links are up near the side and corner where you might expect them and it is almost reminiscent of a blog format because of that. The obvious strength of this site is how well they exhibit their imagery. I also like how the description of the piece is in the bottom corner so that it doesn't interfere with the image, but it is still there for reference. I think the relationships are formed very well within this site.

http://www.13creative.com

I wouldn't mind my personal portfolio site having a lot of the qualities that are found on this portfolio site. From the home page, the site exemplifies a "crafty" nature that reminds one of scrapbooking. The notebook is nice and clean and serves as a great "window" to house the site's information. It's big enough and the portfolio pictures are done in such a way (variety of shots including close-ups) that you're not left feeling like you can't see the work or it's too small. Because the designer does a few different kinds of designs, she has broken it up into categories on the side. The layout of the site is very clean and feminine and every little detail of it fits together quite well. There is no hassle of new windows opening up for the portfolio pieces either, which is nice, and most have more than one page. The home page in itself is very striking and has a cozy, feminine feel to it while maintaining a clean, striking, and organized structure.

http://onwired.com

I think this is a great example of a portfolio website for someone who is trying to figure out what to put on theirs. The design is clean, crisp and professional with a slight flare of personality. Instead of the generic link headings, they focus on the 4 "W" questions and including "we" in the link heading (like who we are, etc). The writing is both professional and humorous. You get the feeling that everyone who works at this agency is friends. On every page there's a button that says "Hire Us. You won't be disappointed. Seriously." This could be taken as pushy, but honestly, coupled with every other aspect of the site, I think it's just honest and confident. On the "What we do" page, it gives a great in-depth description of the services OnWired offers and explains it in a way that makes the client feel more confident and understand a bit about what they're getting into. Another great feature is the little personable note that says "How much will it cost? We get this question a lot. Our short answer? It depends. Keep reading to find out why." I think this is a great approach for a larger agency to take to pricing without causing suspicion or controversy. On their "Where we've done it" page, they actually show their process! The final design comes up by default in a photo frame, but you can hover over sketch and wireframe, and even in some cases, the original and they will come up in the same photo frame. At the corner of the frame, there is a place to click to see the live site. With each piece, there is a short description of the project and a quote from the client. The heading on the portfolio page even says "Our work. We hope you enjoy it..." OnWired strives to be both your professional designer and your fun older brother (full of wisdom and looking out for you in a kind way). I think it's a great approach to selling design services and it's one I hope to be able to replicate in my own way with my own style.

Content for Portfolio Websites

An online portfolio allows you to show your skills and qualities to a possible employer. Because of this, your portfolio should include necessary work samples and process samples that will allow potential employers to evaluate if you would be a good fit for their company. Your site must speak for you before you are even interviewed. It's also important that your portfolio is relevant and professional and that there are absolutely no grammar or spelling mistakes. Everything mentioned on your resume should have a place in your portfolio because otherwise it is left unrepresented. You can include examples of your "soft skills" and qualities to not only mention, but demonstrate your abilities to do what everyone says they can do: communicate, work in a group, work hard, etc.). Because we are graphic designers, creativity is a major portion of our portfolio as well, but it needs not be to the point of clutter and slow or unruly navigation. I read in this article that it is good to keep font choices and color choices to no more than three. Your portfolio should represent you and showcase your abilities; it should show who you are, what you do and how you think. Your portfolio should be able to stand alone, without a need for your explanation about anything.

Your portfolio should have either the focus of getting hired or the focus of obtaining clients. Before designing your portfolio, if you are aiming to get hired, you should try to get inside prospective boss' head and design for him or her. They have undoubtedly looked through many, many portfolios and will be hoping that yours stands out. So make it stand out! In this article, it mentions that the first thing one employer does is critique your portfolio site. Upon passing that inspection, the work is looked at. Only if the work is good, will the employer visit the about page or blog or any other pages you have included. This article also says that "a potential employer will probably make up their mind within the first half-dozen pieces you show - if you've got the goods, get them to the front of the portfolio so they act as a hook. Certainly when I look through portfolios, if I didn't see what I liked early on I wouldn't bother going much further. And if I did go further and unearthed better work buried deep in the site, I'd inevitably wonder why it wasn't shown early on, leaving questions about the candidate's understanding of their own work." This shows how important it is to get a second opinion about your work. Your portfolio is a very personal thing and chances are you've been working with the pieces for a long time. It never hurts to get a second, third, or fourth opinion as to how good your work is. Then you can take everyone's opinions or suggestions into mind and display what you feel is your best work first. I also don't think it's a good idea to show all of your good work (more than just your very best) on the front and leave only the near-rejects for the inside. Then the employer will doubt your ability to produce good work in quantity. Another tip besides getting right into your work is to explain your work. Answering the questions: "Who was the client? What was the brief? What problem was it solving? How did your work solve their needs?" will give the potential employer more of a feel as to where the project is coming from and a better understanding for you and your problem-solving process. Another tip is to make your portfolio "fast, accessible and simple. If you want to show your interactive creativity, it's best to do it IN the portfolio, not on it." There is an important balance between usability and showing your work creatively. It's important that you base your site off of intuitive concepts. Having large and detailed pictures of your work is extremely important as well.

If you are trying to promote a freelance business through your portfolio, you must consider what people you want as clients want to see in your site. Testimonials, client lists and good writing will do a lot to help you with potential customers. It's also important to explain your services and how your work for other clients has helped them. A good idea would be to include statistics as well to help persuade the prospective client that you are confident of being able to help them...whatever they need and you will produce good results for them. In a business portfolio, it's also not as important that you show all your work, so long as you show the best pieces. It's also important to have an easy contact link because prospective clients will obviously need to contact you.

It's also best to show work that fits with your prospective firm's work, though it would be beneficial to show that you are diverse as well. It's also good to use technology that you know that is also pertinent to the type(s) of design you do. Making a simple site and adding technologies to them is a great way to do this. According to this article, your portfolio should be limited to the best work you have for the target area of design in which you are interested. Conversely, "mixed bag portfolios" can demonstrate that you do several types of work and you do them well, thus it is easier to promote your work because you have more of it (though still try to keep the numbers low).

I think it is important to have a contact section, a portfolio section, and an about or profile section. Including blogs are also becoming popular. It's important to feature your logo (and tagline if you're looking for customers). Personally, I wouldn't want a one-page portfolio because it crams everything in one place and would have a really long page length. Even if you organized by categories going down the page, it would still hardly have the appearance of being organized. In addition, if you are diverse in your abilities, it makes it easier for your potential employer or client to find the specific type(s) of work about which they are curious.