This is the second in a series of posts from Chris Rackley on better home page design.

I’ll never forget last spring. My wife and I were shopping for our first home. We’d lived in an apartment for nearly four years, and were finally going to get a house. We had, as most people do, a fairly tight budget - so the pickin’s were slim. Our realtor was a former roommate and long-time friend of mine, and so I was asking him a lot of questions about not just home-buying, but home-selling. I won’t forget some of the principles he taught me (I think I’ll need them someday!). But one that really stands out is this: The #1 thing that sells a home is curb appeal.

Wow! The exact same principle is true of your website.   Read the rest of this entry »

A little while back - just before the ‘08 election, actually - I wrote up a piece about why Obama would win: His harnessing of technology. Change for America (who has mysteriously taken down their web site) set up a campaign that put Obama EVERYWHERE on the web, from Facebook to Twitter to just about every other Web 2.0 social utility imaginable. The success was enormous.

Since my article was posted, I’ve had several people approach me privately to discuss whether Republicans even have a prayer at winning an election in the near future now that the Democrats have so well embraced branding a politician and marketing them socially online. I said, “Sure, they just have to do the same thing, and with a new unique take.” The usual reaction to that comment is something like, “Yeah, but do you really see that happening?”

Nope, at least I didn’t. Read the rest of this entry »

This is the first in a series of articles from Chris Rackley regarding better home pages.

Where have all the good home pages gone? No, seriously. Has the age of Adobe Flash and Adword-driven Landing Pages really brought us to this? So many domains you click on now have some of the coolest graphics, animation, and sound around, but the home page and subsequently the whole site, makes no flippin’ sense whatsoever! Others are poorly laid out - a conversion of confusion and convulsion (yes, I said that!). The point is, many businesses today need to rethink their home pages. I contend that it is not an issue of code, art, or site map plan - it goes much deeper than that. It’s a weak philosophy. Never fear, we’re here to get you back on track. But before we explain to you the right way to view your home page, we need to get rid of some wrong views.

Here are a few popular ones that have been going around: Read the rest of this entry »

Just about one year ago, we had the privilege of launching a new site for one of our favorite clients: Liquid Highway. The owners, Dwain and Keeli Waller, are about as cool as specimens of mankind get. But it was the story of Liquid Highway that we set out to tell. We incorporated some pretty nice technology in their site (gotta love those barista playlists - those cats have sweet taste!), but Dwain made it clear to us from the beginning that it was the mission that needed to be front and center. Liquid Highway donates all of their profits after taxes to charity. We put together several pages to tell their story . . . but at the end of the day, people needed to find the story. Therein lies the rub. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, it’s that time of year - and though it may sound cliché, I have a lot to be thankful for. I could go on and on about how I work with the best team in the world, have a wondeful family, and serve some of the coolest customers around . . . but I’ve decided it’d be better to mix things up a bit. So without further ado, I give you my Thanksgiving Poem of 2009 - All Thanks Be to Apple:

Now thank we all Steve Jobs, with digitally-absent voices,
Who wondrous things has giv’n, like overpriced mp3 choices;
Who from Steve Ballmer’s arms has stolen us away
With countless new gadgets, and constant OS updates.

O may the bounteous iPhone throughout our lives be with us,
With ego-centric apps and hawt looks to distract us.
And keeps us all plugged in, with its cornerstone, iTunes;
Which we still always use, despite its DRM issues.

All praise and thanks to AppleCare now unabash-ed;
Which bailed me out of two-in-three-month Macbook crashes;
So while Apple’s goods, they may look like a hot date;
They should get better harddrives, and stop using Seagate.

THE. END.