The Importance of Great Design

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Ian Watt Real Estate example

What is the difference between a user clicking on an ad or not? Great Design
What is the difference in looking professional or not? Great Design
What is the difference in becoming a premium product or service? Great Design
What catches the eye more than anything else on the web? Great Design

Let’s face it, most companies want to keep costs low, and be smart about where they spend their money. The problem is, in Atlantic Canada having a website is not used nearly as effectively as it should. In modern cities like Vancouver and Toronto websites are considered to be one of, if not they, most important marketing tools for their business. The web is where people are spending their time, and that’s the new staple for researching any type of product or service. Your website not only needs to be well designed, it needs to be found in search engines, and it needs to be connected to where people are talking like social media networks, such as Facebook and Twitter. More… →

Live Empowered

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live empoweredI was recently approached about a great cause that I wanted to share with everyone. November is National Family Domestic Violence Month as well as November 25th being the International Day to End Violence Against Women. The greater Saint John area is having a few events that support this great cause.

To raise awareness Live Empowered was born. It is being held at The Chang Yong Taekwondo College (278 Waterloo Street) on November 19th. The silent auction for Hestia House is from 10:00am-12:00pm and the Women’s Empowerment Session and Self Defence Course from 1:00pm-4:00pm. In addition, there will be numerous door prizes and light refreshments from Piece O’ Cake and Starbucks. There are over 50 silent auction items up for grabs including many great gift cards and items from some of Saint John’s most generous businesses. More… →

Piece O Cake

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Piece O Cake

I love small businesses that take risks and use innovative marketing alongside a great product. Piece O’ Cake is Saint John’s newest hot spot and has people in love with cupcakes all over again.

If you’ve visited Vancouver lately you would notice numerous Cupcake Girls locations throughout the city, and they are so popular that they even have their own TV show. I am not comparing the two businesses but merely pointing out that cupcake bakery’s can be successful by simply providing a great product and some smart marketing. More… →

Understanding the NBA Lockout

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NBA Lockout

I believe everyone has the right to negotiate fair wages and employers also have the right to discuss revenues and changes that need to be made in order to be profitable. When it comes down to it, our businesses foremost need to be profitable before employees can start making sensible arguments towards fair wages. Everyone has their own point of view on the NBA Lockout and labour disputs, unions, etc, but it all comes down to one thing, profits. A business will not succeed being in the red at the end of a fiscal year, and that is why this years NBA lockout is not only ridiculous, but it’s a huge hit to the U.S. economy as well.

First I need to point out that there are 7 teams in the NBA that are the only major league sports team in their city. Oklahoma, San Antonio, Portland, Orlando, Utah, and Sacramento all share this commonality. To gain some perspective on how different they really are from the rest of the 23 teams in the league the Portland Trail Blazers formed a study (complied by Forbes), which showed the 23 other teams created a net loss of value in their market of 11 million dollars from 2009-2010. This is not surprising with the economic downturn the U.S. had over this time. On the other hand the other 7 teams combined for a +64 million value in that same stretch. Obviously being the only major league sports team in your city is going to create an enormous value to your city. The hard part to swallow is the devastating amount of job losses and economic value the NBA lockout has caused and may cause even further if the season is cancelled. More… →

OS X Lion

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Lion OS X

I finally updated my Macbook to OS X Lion. I debated updating for awhile now but finally pulled the trigger after asking a friend if all the bugs were worked out yet. I always have a hesitation to upgrading to a new OS because they are usually buggy until the first patch comes out. He gave me the thumbs up and soon as I ended my last project with a client, there was nothing else that could hold me back.

The neatest feature: The gestures using the trackpad is still new to me but I can already tell that I’m going ot save time from going app to app. A 4 finger swipe to the side and I move from Photoshop to Chrome in less than a second. Love it! More… →

The iPhone 4S

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iPhone 4s

I’ve been asked by several people how I like the new iPhone 4S and I haven’t brought myself to say one bad thing about it. A mobile device in my world is one of the most important pieces of equipement I own, so I didn’t take this decision lightly. I am constantly on the go and with a 24/7 hour career, being involved with many community clubs, and most importantly a family man, I need to have instant communication and organization in my hands at all times. A time saving mobile device has become a necessity to me in everyday living.

I’ve previously owned flip phones, my wife has a blackberry, (God bless her), and I’ve played with various android devices that many friends and colleagues use. The Blackberry was not even an option becasue they’ve fallen so far behind in innovating for their phones. If I just needed the phone for talking to people and checking email, I would definitely consider it because they are built like bricks and they are sturdy. I like the Android OS and it can accomplish pretty much anything the iOS can, but let me be clear when I say, Android is like a Chevy, and iOS is like driving a Cadillac. You can tell the difference by just driving it. More… →

Getting Video Ready for the Web

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video killed the radio star

Getting video ready for the web has been made much easier because of great online services such as Vimeo, YouTube, and Facebook. Many software applications including iPhoto for Mac enable you to simply send your videos directly to these online video hosting providers. They allow you to share your videos with family and friends with one click. What I would like to share with you today are a few ways to get your video on the web from your digital or video camera. It’s not as hard as it sounds and sharing those precious home videos is important, so let’s dive in. More… →

WordPress 3.1

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wordpress 3.1

So as many of you know I am a WordPress geek. I love it’s capabilities and I use it for every website I build, whether large or small. I read blogs about it everyday, I dig into the code everyday, you can basically say I am a WordPress junkie. I have to applaud the WordPress community for bringing it as far as it has to where it is today, version 3.1. I’m going to talk a bit about one of the minor updates that was included in 3.1, which is archives for custom post types. It may seem a bit geeky, but what this means for the CMS non-techy type is really a big deal. There’s a lot of documentation on what custom port types are, and you can simply do a Google search and you will be a guru on custom post types in a week. Again, one of the main reasons why I love WordPress; Documentation and resources at your fingertips. More… →