Musings and Memes

I ran across another site today that hit me up with a survey right on the homepage before I've even done anything yet. Does your site do this? Would you fill out a survey card at a restaurant, before you've ordered anything, been served or tried the food?

Maybe after a visitor has clicked in a few pages you could accost them with the 'can we help you' type of chat popup, altho some people get freaked out by those too. We should engage the customer at their pace and convenience. If a visitor (prospect) requests (via email or web form) info, or certainly if they've ordered something, that's your cue to send some follow up questions.. how'd we do, what didn't you find, etc.

For business owners looking to use a survey as a 'virtual salesperson', I'd suggest having a more direct question, like Need Help? If yes, direct them to your search engine, show them your most popular products/services and or direct them to your FAQs, but anything other than a Survey.

Some may argue that they garner some insight from the few that fill out the form, but not at the expense of other users that you turn away with this tactic. Still want to keep your survey? Then please add a link to it somewhere prominently on your website, as those are hard to find when I actually do want to fill one out.

Posted by Eric Gockel at 11:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From Dieter Rams (via Vitsœ)

1. Innovative
2. Useful
3. Aesthetic
4. Self-explanatory
5. Unobtrusive
6. Honest
7. Durable
8. Thorough
9. Environmentally-friendly
10. As little design as possible

Posted by Eric Gockel at 09:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

If you're using Subversion version control, one GUI option for Mac users is svnX

Getting started isn't immediately intuitive with the multiple windows, so here are some steps I put together for one of my guys today:

1. You need to setup the connection to the SVN server in the 'repositories' window:
- name: whatever you want to reference it as
- path: https://www.yourdomain.com
- username
- password

After that's entered, you can double click on its listing above the edit fields. It should then try to connect and display the most recent log messages. That's the first step to getting going.

2. Create the folder on your machine where you want the files to live. Go back to the svnX window that has the logs, below the log listings it should show "root" in the first column, Click on that and "trunk" should appear and begin to load its subfolders. With "trunk" selected, click svn checkout at the top and choose the folder you created. You can click show output to see the files getting added.

3. Then, in the svnX Working Copies window, create a new item. The 'name' should match what you used in #1 above for the connection name and the path should be the folder that you created, just the root, not the 'trunk'.

4. After you've added the working copy, double click its listing in the copies window. A new window should launch. Click Update to pull down the latest. Click Show output to see what changes if any were pulled down.

5. So every time you start a new session, you just need to fire up that last window to 'get latest'. Hit refresh to see any changes you've made.. click 'update' on the side to post your changes to svn and 'add' for any new files that aren't in svn.

Certificate Errors
You may get certificate errors when trying to connect for the first time, you'll need to subvert it by using the terminal

Hosted Subversion
I recently ran across Beanstalk, a hosted version of Subversion. I haven't tried it out,but it is supposed to integrate with Basecamp, another online application we use.

Posted by Eric Gockel at 12:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Recently, we were hired on to redesign the website for a client, however they didn't have the FTP information for their website.

As a 3rd party, it is a bit difficult to obtain this information from an ISP if you don't have certain bits of information to identify yourself. Here are some steps that we had to go through to finally gain access:

1. Have the ISP send the login information to the email on record with the account. In this case, the person was no longer with the firm and their email was no longer active. However since email is something that we have control over, we will recreate that email address again so we can receive the account login instructions.

2. If the email on record is for someone with an email in a domain not in your control, then you have other steps. The ISP will probably ask you for the last 4-digits of the credit card used for payments as well as the name on the card. Our luck, this client didn't have this either.

3. Lastly, the ISP will require you to send them a fax with your information and requested changes on your company letterhead. Unless they verify the incoming fax number, this obviously can be pretty easily faked, IMHO.

If you don't have the login information for your website hosting service, you really should make sure you have it in your possession. If your web guy/gal is reluctant to give it to you now, it won't be any easier/better down the road when you really need it.

Posted by Eric Gockel at 12:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Congratulations! You've finally decided to enter the world of online commerce. You've setup an online store, hired a web designer and have something that looks pretty legitimate. But before you flip on the switch, make sure you have a secure checkout! Nothing will make web shoppers hit the back button faster than having a page asking for credit card information that isn't secure. And putting a logo up like Verisign or Authorize.net (shown) won't make it secure by itself.

For a page to be secure, it needs to begin with HTTPS, which also puts the friendly padlock icon in the bottom of your browser, telling folks that everything's kosher.

You have to be a little comfortable with setting up websites and dealing with ISPs and whatnot to install your own SSL (secure socket layer) certificate. Otherwise, ask your webguy or gal to make sure you have one setup (and test it out to make sure your checkout is HTTPS and you get the padlock icon w/o any error messages!). It'll cost you about $60/yr to maintain a certificate from a place like RapidSSL.

If you're using a site like Yahoo stores, they include SSL with their package, so you should be cool with them. Same goes if you're using PayPal

Posted by Eric Gockel at 11:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So my latest pair of Gap jeans today went on a tear, and kept tearing. Time for new jeans... what's my size again? Well no problem, I'll just check the inside of the pa.. what, no size? When did they stop putting the sizes on jeans?

No worries, I'll just go online and check my prior order status, they'll have the size AND style that I previously bought, making my repeat purchase even simpler. Nope, sorry, gap.com only keeps your order history for 14 days?

Amazon keeps it for years. Comon' guys.

Posted by Eric Gockel at 09:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Ever wonder why Mini's have their speedometer in the center of the dashboard?

"During the painting of the shell, a rod was inserted straight through the car allowing the shell to be spun round as it was painted.

The speedometer was originally put in the middle of the dashboard, cleverly covering the hole where the pole went."

From A Design Classic by James Dyson.

Posted by Eric Gockel at 01:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)