I have a couple of friends and organizations that I do a little work for to help them or their cause out. The reason I do it is not because I love extra work, or have some need to fill my free relax-time with nose-down computer tasks, it’s because they’re my friends and I believe [...]]]>

I have a couple of friends and organizations that I do a little work for to help them or their cause out. The reason I do it is not because I love extra work, or have some need to fill my free relax-time with nose-down computer tasks, it’s because they’re my friends and I believe in their cause. One such group is the Palmetto Peloton Project (www.p3ride.org). We do a lot of work for them here at Worthwhile, but in addition to that I maintain their yearly blog for their “Challenge to Conquer Cancer” relay ride from Greenville to Austin, TX (www.ridetoaustin.com). I also try to help them stay up to par with social media (although I dropped the twitter-ball this year. We’ll get better about it!) and generally I toot the P3 horn whenever the topic of cancer comes up. This group will have donated close to three quarters of a million dollars to local cancer research and the LiveStrong Foundation when this year’s events come to a close. Not only is this completely phenomenal, my wife has been a part of this group for the past three years and is a cancer survivor. I enjoy helping them out.

Another friend of mine holds a yearly convention in Asheville called the Southern Energy and Environment Expo (www.seeexpo.com). For the past ten years my friend Ned has been bringing people together from all around the alternative energy and sustainable living worlds. They showcase windmills, earth-friendly buildings, cars, farming and hundreds of other environmentally friendly products and services. Good stuff for us all to learn about and use when we can!

So, back to why I do this stuff… I don’t get paid for all of it, and what I do get paid for I try to charge as little as possible. I care about these people and what they are doing. I am not helping these guys for the money I might make on the side. If it were up to me I’d do it all for a tee-shirt, a jersey, or a hat. The swag always lasts much longer than the cash anyway, plus I am a walking (or pedaling) advertisement for the cause whenever I wear it! Win-win situation! I come from a fine art background into the computer world, and for me it is pretty cut-and-dry what motivates me. For me there is a much simpler but far more grand payoff than cash — Appreciation.

What drives you? What is the big payoff for what you’re spending your efforts on? Do you have a passionate cause… and an extra tee-shirt? : )

Webrage [wehb´-reyj] noun, verb — An electronic version of roadrage. An instance of blatant disregard for manners, accountability, and/or the good of humanity as a whole, enabled by web-user anonymity. Webrage typically occurs when a web user has been perturbed by some experience and has chosen to share their opinion in a passionate negative manner. [...]]]>

Webrage [wehb´-reyj] noun, verb — An electronic version of roadrage. An instance of blatant disregard for manners, accountability, and/or the good of humanity as a whole, enabled by web-user anonymity. Webrage typically occurs when a web user has been perturbed by some experience and has chosen to share their opinion in a passionate negative manner. Often accompanied by rants, swearing, finger-pointing. Usually contains multiple typos due to excited typing techniques.

Ever gone to check your blog post, shared recipe, tweet status, or whatever and been surprised to find a spittin, swearin, stutterin reader review that bashes your very existence for even thinking of such a foul idea? I really don’t enjoy finding sarcastic replies to honest questions, sifting through hundreds of cynical responses in a forum trying to find a real answer. It’s annoying scanning through reviews of a product when there are 12 geniuses complaining about everything under the sun. There aren’t enough intelligent reviews to form a real opinion in most cases.

I understand that it’s much easier to be passionate when you’re angry or hurt, and being vocal is part of communication. Don’t stop, by all means – HOWEVER – I believe you should make an attempt to be as passionate about something that made you happy or worked as it promised it would. Now buck up and get that browser open, and sing someone’s praises that’s done you right. Let us opinion seekers get something of value, some meat and taters, not all these haters.

Throughout history there have been thousands of innovative, ground-breaking ideas. The Titanic – huge and invincible. The Hindenburg – fast and safe. Tower of Pisa – structurally sound. J Geils Band – Freezeframe. The list goes on… All of these things were seemingly great ideas until the unexpected reared its ugly head. All of these [...]]]>

Throughout history there have been thousands of innovative, ground-breaking ideas. The Titanic – huge and invincible. The Hindenburg – fast and safe. Tower of Pisa – structurally sound. J Geils Band – Freezeframe. The list goes on…

All of these things were seemingly great ideas until the unexpected reared its ugly head. All of these things needed someone’s professional recommendation, or at least ideas of possible ‘hiccups’ that may be encountered. Had these innovators consulted more knowledgeable people before implementing their ideas, the outcomes may have been dramatically different.

If you’re thinking about a new website, or a revamp of your existing one, I encourage you to get some professional input. We know websites; it’s what we do all day, every day. We may not be able to help you think through all of the issues you might face while printing a magazine ad or scheduling cable advertising spots, but we can definitely give you sound advice about deploying a successful website. We have an initial phase of any new project that we call Discovery – this is where we do our homework on your project. We investigate your competitors, your perceived audiences, your business goals and expectations. We can then craft a plan for attack – and you get to be a part from the beginning. This helps Worthwhile avoid launching a big Hindenburg for your business, and it helps you understand exactly what your website can do for you.

I had some car troubles last week – battery related issues. The car was getting worse as I drove day after day, and as usual I waited until the last minute to get it fixed. I went to a well known auto parts store to get a new battery on my way to work. I [...]]]>

I had some car troubles last week – battery related issues. The car was getting worse as I drove day after day, and as usual I waited until the last minute to get it fixed. I went to a well known auto parts store to get a new battery on my way to work. I think it was out of convenience that I chose this place, I knew where it was and I’ve been a customer several times in the past. They pulled up my car’s battery model on the screen, and it was $80 for the cheapest battery they kept in stock. Yikes. I wanted to stay more on the low price scale, but I needed it or I may not have gotten to work. The guy behind the counter, after a quick minute of letting me know my options, surprised me with a “Let me tell you where you need to go…” He recommended Battery Specialists, Inc. right up the road from Cherrydale. http://www.abatterystore.com — They do batteries and only batteries, and they do it well. Battery replaced, installed, with a pack of double-a’s to boot, for less than half of my original quoted price.

Why is a car battery experience the subject of my blog this week? Because once again I was reminded of the ultimate value a specialist has to their respective industry. In the earlier days of web design and desktop publishing this is similar to comparing Corel Draw to the Adobe products. Corel had several of the same tools Photoshop, Illustrator and Pagemaker had all rolled into one package, but they were trying to be the “everything” software and consequently could not produce the same quality as Adobe products. Now, Adobe software is the industry standard for these tasks and Corel is rarely used by professionals. At Battery Specialists they KNOW batteries – all kinds of batteries, all kinds of stuff about them. They fixed me up with no delays, with a battery that was less than half of the initial store’s price. The employees were polite, knowledgeable, and willing to help. I left knowing where I’d ever go if I had battery needs again, and knowing where I’d recommend anyone go for battery issues.

It made me proud to be a part of a team of internet and software specialists. The team here at Worthwhile KNOWS interactive applications. We know how to implement websites and software, inside and out. We don’t do print, branding, signage, and everything else under the sun – we do website and software development and we do it well. I’m proud that I can have the same confidence in my company and our offerings that my friend at Battery Specialists has. I hope I can make someone feel the same way about their web experience with Worthwhile – this is what makes a business unparalleled leaders in their industry.

Everyone loves to spend a portion of their time documenting their ideas, work, issues, concerns, processes, approaches, estimates, research, history, and whatever else we can transcribe from life to paper. I know it’s my favorite thing – when I finish a project up, proud of my accomplishments, I wanna relive it all on paper as [...]]]>

Everyone loves to spend a portion of their time documenting their ideas, work, issues, concerns, processes, approaches, estimates, research, history, and whatever else we can transcribe from life to paper. I know it’s my favorite thing – when I finish a project up, proud of my accomplishments, I wanna relive it all on paper as soon as possible.

WHAT?? You can see right through my paragraph o’ sarcasm? Well, yeah maybe I exaggerated a little. Truth is, documenting information about a project allows us to see patterns that we can’t possibly pick up on while we’re neck deep in the mire of production on a web project.

Documentation for a web project here at Worthwhile starts with the conception of a project – the initial meeting with someone about their idea and their aspirations of making the internet an integral part of that idea’s success. This generally culminates into two types of documentation – some that describe the project goals with as much detail as possible, and some that describe the project production and how it all will be executed. In my experience managing projects, this documentation is key in meeting goals and achieving success.

So what goes into this documentation? Well, as I mentioned earlier, it all starts with the initial meeting, the ‘Discovery Phase’. Here, the fundamental constraints and goals are defined. What is the idea, who is it targeted towards, how will it benefit the target as well as the idea owner? Once these things are defined, you can determine what functions and tools are needed to achieve these goals. A website or web application cannot be successful unless you clearly know what ‘successful’ is. Another huge aspect to defining success is the constraints of the project – what hurdles are in the way of that final goal?

There are three major players here: Quality, Time, and Budget.

• Time is relatively easy to understand – when does it need to be finished, plain and simple.
• Budget is also pretty straight forward, how far can we get with the money available for the project?
• Quality is a little harder to pin down, because it relies on the other two constraints to make it real – what can be done within the allotted time frame, within the allotted budget, to meet as many of the initial goals as possible?

If your initial goals are clear, and your time and budget are understood, you’re on your way to success.

The care and passion we put into our work here at Worthwhile is what separates us from the pack as far as successful web application design and deployment. We love the discovery phase of a project, because that’s where we can apply our real talents to create a genuine success. Business Goals, Information architecture, Functional specifications, Elemental wireframes, Savvy design, and Skilled execution – these are the ingredients of internet success.

Bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Serves 6.8 billion.

Today The Worthwhile Company tried something a little out of the box for us. We had Jeff Holland of Drum4Work come in and let us bang out our workday frustrations a little. At first the idea seemed wacky — what does drumming have to do with web development? design? secure hosting? customer service? teamwork? Jeff [...]]]>

Today The Worthwhile Company tried something a little out of the box for us. We had Jeff Holland of Drum4Work come in and let us bang out our workday frustrations a little. At first the idea seemed wacky — what does drumming have to do with web development? design? secure hosting? customer service? teamwork?

Jeff did a great job of tying it all together. A song isn’t a song with just one note. Once several notes come together and work in harmony, then you have the song. Check out some pics of our orchestra:

The album will be coming to a store near you later this month.
Rock on!

P.S. — Jonathan had so much fun, he says he’ll be dancing at the next Drum4Work/Worthwhile team building percussion and dancing extravaganza!

I’m sure you’ve probably heard the old “right-brained /left-brained” comparison. Usually when I hear this comparison it is in reference to someone’s ability (or inability) to make something happen – “He can’t draw well, he’s too left-brained to be creative”. Or “She is terrible in Science, she is too creative minded”. I tend to disagree [...]]]>

I’m sure you’ve probably heard the old “right-brained /left-brained” comparison. Usually when I hear this comparison it is in reference to someone’s ability (or inability) to make something happen – “He can’t draw well, he’s too left-brained to be creative”. Or “She is terrible in Science, she is too creative minded”. I tend to disagree with it all. I have a fine art background, focused on drawing & painting, and now I do mostly programming and project management. Not very related, or are they?

When you compare many things that seemingly fit the left/right brain separation, you find that there are more things alike than are different. Music, art, and dance all require a good bit of math and physics to pull off. Likewise, solving an in-depth mathematical formula can require a creative approach in order to visualize patterns or similarities that offer up the solution. In my opinion, a one-sided approach to any situation or problem can be much more difficult to handle.

In web programming and design, there is even less of a distinction between left and right brained approaches. To make a web site clean and attractive, yet still fully functional, can be an extremely difficult challenge. I think it takes several people’s input to expose as many issues as possible when building a site. Once all the possible issues and concerns are identified, the creativity lies in solving these problems as eloquently as possible. There is as much creativity in figuring out how to program a really savvy user interface as there is in producing a traditional oil painting. It’s all about communication, how the final product is perceived by the intended user.

Maybe someone is more comfortable working with numbers than colors, but in my experience most tasks in life require the full brain. Oh well, there may still be some hope for me somewhere.

This past week we had the honor of having two exchange students from Spain stay with the family. At first I was a little hesitant to accept the students, my house can sometimes be hectic and overwhelming with 3 kids, active parents, jobs, school starting back soon, the list goes on…  But ultimately we were [...]]]>

This past week we had the honor of having two exchange students from Spain stay with the family. At first I was a little hesitant to accept the students, my house can sometimes be hectic and overwhelming with 3 kids, active parents, jobs, school starting back soon, the list goes on…  But ultimately we were excited about accepting them into our home. They are both 16 year old boys, and got along great with my own 15 year old immediately. They were both very polite and ate my cooking with no complaining whatsoever!

We were surprisingly similar despite the major differences in our cultures. I found that they did the same stuff we did ultimately – they love the water, adventure, food, music, and facebook/youtube. I didn’t realize just how international the internet is until I got to see the boys browsing sites they were familiar with. They had music bumping and sang along happily with Spanish hip-hop tunes, chatted with friends, laughed at videos and downloaded viruses just like my kids do every day (jk). The boys made our week very interesting, and we learned a lot from them. I hope they had a good time and learned something from us as well. As usual the week flew by (For those of you who aren’t old with kids, time moves faster as it goes, weeks turn into days) and I found myself sad to see the day come to return the boys to the YMCA.

I will have a hard time making this post relate to something electronic, but I still wanted to share it with you – if you ever get the opportunity to expose yourself and/or your family to the ways of another culture first hand, I highly recommend shunning any reservations and give it a try. The week was great, my family and I learned a lot about Spain, cultural and lifestyle differences, and most of all respect. We made some new friends, and I personally learned a little more about internet usability that I’ll be sure to take into account when building websites that are catered more to an international audience.

Sometimes if people have never been involved in getting a website launched, they can be shocked at the price range for services. What is the difference between the under $500 website and the $150,000 website? Sometimes the differences of these sites are in the website design, both in the graphic elements as well as the [...]]]>

Sometimes if people have never been involved in getting a website launched, they can be shocked at the price range for services. What is the difference between the under $500 website and the $150,000 website? Sometimes the differences of these sites are in the website design, both in the graphic elements as well as the information design

For example, a higher priced site may have more pleasing design elements, slick animated web pages or stockpiles of great information and tools. On the other hand, lower priced sites often have unrelated menu items where things seem unorganized and overwhelming or old, outdated information and no tools to help you finish your internet quest.

How can you protect yourself, and get a website that performs as part of your team?

Website Goals. When you decide to engage a company to do a website for your company, the most important ammunition you can have is clearly defined business motives and goals. Stick to those goals when designing your website. If you clearly define your business goals and how you expect the website to help, then you can define your target audience and better understand what they will need from your website to help you meet your goals. Just as a company would not hire an employee without first defining the expectations and requirements of the job to be filled, you should not launch a website without first defining the “responsibilities” of the website.

Website Job Description. When clear goals, the target audience, the functional needs of the website, and the main content have been defined, a design that suits the needs of your business can be developed. A website should be viewed as a full-time employee for your company. You should know what its job is. This includes considering the tools required for the site to do its job well. If you don’t accurately describe what the website’s job is then you can hardly expect to see it perform well.

If you are wary about the pricing differences in web development companies, you can help protect yourself by fully understanding what it is you want to do, and communicating that clearly when you are choosing a company to help your website succeed.

I was searching through my faithful laptop bag and I found a gift certificate a friend had given me for Christmas this past year. I totally forgot about it, but between old receipts and expired coupons there was my Horizon Records gift certificate. If you haven’t been to Horizon, they have an eclectic variety of [...]]]>

I was searching through my faithful laptop bag and I found a gift certificate a friend had given me for Christmas this past year. I totally forgot about it, but between old receipts and expired coupons there was my Horizon Records gift certificate. If you haven’t been to Horizon, they have an eclectic variety of tunes, old vinyl records, books, movies, cds  and much more. Very cool place, and as a bonus if you go there mid-day you can enjoy the wafting of deliciousness from The Bohemian Cafe lunch menu (I recommend the Cuban sandwich, it’s magically delicious).

I realized that I had not been to a physical music store in a long, long time. I used to go to a place in Atlanta called Rainbow Records to get the latest cassette tapes of my favorite guitar players, or find an old Bee Gees album. What I remember most about those visits is that once I stepped in the store, I seemed to forget all about what I came in for– I couldn’t resist the urge to scour every single rack, from A to Z. This time was no different. I had an idea of some things that I wanted, but when I walked in I stood still for a minute, not sure which direction to go. I was the feeling the same “I wanna browse” feeling I used to feel. It was great.

After looking around for a little while I asked the girl at the register for help. “I can’t make up my mind, I could browse all day. Maybe some blues. What good blues would you recommend?” I asked her. She whipped out a Muddy Waters album that she said they could barely keep in stock–live 1966 show at the Fillmore in San Francisco. Sweet, sold. I also picked up a copy of the Dave Matthews Band’s latest album that I was planning on getting through iTunes. It was on sale here.

My experience at Horizon make me realize just how ‘easy and convenient’ the internet is trying to be. Facebook serves ads that I may have interest in, Ebay and Amazon suggest things I might wanna buy, but all of this can’t match the user experience I get when I walk into a store and interact with a human. Maybe I’d be more comfortable if websites had a weird smell or if they cracked dumb jokes instead of trying to perfect the art of guessing what I’m thinking. Maybe I’m just weird myself, and I probably smell funny. Meanwhile, I’ll keep trying to achieve that ultimate user experiences as I build websites. Hmmmm.