It is a recurring theme looking through modern gallery sites and portfolio collections – ego. Looking through sites for inspiration I notice designers designing for designers, developers building functionality for show off points, and the end result is something considered “cool” that the customer cannot use and the customers audience deems inappropriate. I have compiled this checklist of 5 things I keep in mind when designing or developing for my customers. These tips help me to stay on the right path to delivering something I am proud of, and is valuable to the customer.

Here is a list of the 5 Design and Development Tips you can use to create a more clear end product for your customer.

1.  Research Your Customer – This may be obvious, but many times freelance designers and developers will get into an autopilot mode when they have a consistent stream of work. Their work starts to look the same, and they do not take the time to research what the company is about and how their project can become more unique. This tip is at the top because it should be done right away, at the first sales call, so that you can be thinking in their unique terms while you go through your project meditation.
2. Understand the Audience – This step will also help you focus your energy in the right direction, and I always use this step to look for ways I can innovate. This part is exciting to me because  I am a nerd I get the opportunity to give the audience something useful that they may not have seen before. Example: When I was originally working on the functionality of the Gores Group website (Gores Technology Group at the time) they had a mixed audience, but most of which would read every word of the site. Surprisingly many people would print  the whole website to read offline. With this is mind we developed a specific AJAX print button that, when clicked, would expand to reveal three options: Print Page, Print Category, Print Complete Site. Since the site content was managed by a database, these buttons had to grab the content from the database, apply print styles including high resolution black and white images, and reformat into printer friendly versions with page breaks after each section.
3. Choose A Platform – This is the first tip that is actually related directly to the design or development work involved. For designers you need to choose based on if the project is for print or web. With that decided you can determine whether the project should be raster, vector, or a mixture of both. Once this is determined you can begin by opening Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, or the design tool of your choice. Developers need to take into account server specs, interactivity, and devices such as desktop computers, tablets and smart phones. Based on these requirements you need to choose your languages, library’s, and database formats to begin building your project.
4. Find Inspiration Wisely – This is always a danger zone as many people can get sidetracked here. Going out to find inspiration needs to be a disciplined act that you have to control. The trick I use is to constantly remind myself that I am representing my client so that I do not get sidetracked into eye candy overload. The best thing to do is ste a time limit on your inspiration exploration, and keep something visible on your desktop to keep reminding you about the customer’s project. This will help you keep on track.
5. Remember Clear and Simple – Sometimes in the beginning of a project we have very high expectations of ourselves and set a laundry list of new techniques and “awesomeness” we want to dump in. The reality is that it may get in the way of the message and make the project more complicated than it should be. The trick I use is when I am in a project and about to break ground on my next step is to remember “clear and simple”. I will take a small break to contemplate how this next step is going to affect the clarity of the message, and what complexities it will bring that have the potential to become roadblocks later.

I hope this helps you in your next project, and if you have any additional advice please share it in the comments.

The redesigned homepage for Metro Video Systems is complete and approved. The next step is to design the interior pages matching the same elegance as the homepage. This site will be done very soon.

http://jbyer.com/clients/metro/

Plan B Custom Designs is a new company that custom builds bottle service tables for high end night clubs. The design direction incorporated modern fonts with an impressionist style table.

While proposing work for a mobile app developer I decided to whip up a logo concept to send along. Didn’t want to show the complete logo in case we do not end up working together but this will give you a taste. Hopefully much more to come…

I recently added the plus 1 button to my website and read through some of the suggestions. Google recommends placing the button at the top of the page, close to the logo, to make it easier for visitors to use it. My translation of that is, they want to brand everything. I placed the button in my footer, below twitter, facebook, and LinkedIn. I don’t believe many people will use it, and definitely not important enough to basically co-brand my websites.

The info I read on the Plus 1 button mentions it will help filter relevant search results the more people use the button. We will see if that helps but plus has a long way to go to become as mainstream as Facebook. Right now, only my tech friends are using plus and the soccer mom’s are still addicted to Facebook. Converting them will take years.

Jeff Byer was asked by The Good Shepherd Shelter Guild to donate designs for an annual gala invitation. The logo was created based on the name of the current year’s gala, On the Wings of a Song. Jeff also designed the invitation, letterhead, envelopes and created versions of the logo to be used in various marketing efforts.

When pod casting started it was instantly a geek only medium. Just the fact that you had to subscribe, download, and either listen on your computer or sync to take it with you was a pain.

It has all changed thanks to smart phones and apps like Stitcher. I no longer need to sync to take my podcasts with me on my run or in my car. Fire up the app and it will automatically find the latest episodes of your subscribed podcasts and start playing them in order. Genius. Now podcasts make sense for the non-geek, or “mainstream” just because it is now easy.

www.stitcher.com

Jeff Byer has been commissioned to build the website for The Koffee Kart Cafe in Manhattan Beach, California. This design is the first composition submitted to the client for review. Unfortunately a fire damaged the building and completely ruined other businesses located in the same building. The focus of the ownership now is to rebuild and re-open while Jeff Byer will continue online marketing.

Link to full website mockup

Jeff Byer was hired by AOL to build presentation materials for FOX. The X Factor login screen mock up is one sample of several AOL advertising options that were presented to FOX networks for their online media buys for the coming primetime season.

Repeating One Digit May Actually Improve the Security of Your Phone’s 4-Digit Lockscreen PIN – Lifehacker.