A certain man planted a rose and watered it faithfully.
Before it blossomed, he examined it. He saw a bud that
would soon blossom. He also saw the thorns, and he
thought, “How can any beautiful flower come from a plant,
burdened with so many sharp thorns?” Saddened by this
thought, he neglected to water the rose, and before it was
ready to bloom, it died.

So it is with many people. Within every soul, there is a rose.
The qualities planted in us at birth, growing amidst
the thorns of our faults. Many of us look at ourselves and
see only the thorns, the defects. We despair, thinking
nothing good can possibly come from us. We neglect to
water the good within us, and eventually it dies. We never
realize our potential.

Some don’t see the rose within themselves. It takes someone
else to show it to them. One of the greatest gifts a person
can possess is to be able to reach past the thorns and find
the rose within others. This is the truest, most innocent, and
gracious characteristic of love – to know another person,
including their faults, recognize the nobility in their soul,
and yet still help another to realize they can overcome their
faults. If we show them the rose, they will conquer the
thorns. Only then will they blossom, and most likely,
blooming thirty, sixty, a hundred-fold, as it is given to them.

Our duty in this world is to help others, by showing them
their roses and not their thorns. It is then that we
achieve the love we should feel for each other. Only then
can we bloom in our own garden.

Created by an unknown author, “The Parable of the Rose” is an

encouragement to look passes our failures or shortcomings. Our

world can be so performance based sometimes individuals forget

they’re NOT perfect.

Both do the basics: create slides using text, tables, charts, graphics and other multimedia elements, let you apply a master design to them, organize the slides into a slide show and play them or print them out as a presentation. Keynote scores for the ease of its drag-and-drop assembly and its context-sensitive Inspector tool, which will be familiar to users of design products from Adobe for controlling the attributes of each element.

We particularly liked the ease of use of Keynote’s chart and table tools, which work within the application, and its transition effects, both for moving between slides and for introducing elements within an individual slide–though overuse may eventually make us as tired of Keynote’s revolving cube transitions as we are of PowerPoint’s wipes.

Keynote’s graphics tools are where the program consistently scores over PowerPoint. Its out-of-the-box templates for the master design sides are fewer in number than PowerPoint’s (Keynote generally has fewer out-of-the-box bells and whistles than PowerPoint, probably a blessing for the forces of good design) but Apple’s choice of typography and color palates are as coordinated and tasteful as one would expect from the company.

The novice presenter will easily produce the more stunning-looking slideshow using Keynote. A seasoned colleague for whom style is as important as substance will feel as if they are using a powerful graphics program rather than a presentation one thanks to Keynote’s graphics layering and pixel-precise positioning tools. Not that any of that matters, of course, if the user doesn’t have a good sense of design.

The test for Keynote for business folk is how well it integrates with what they have to use: corporate templates, Excel spreadsheets and existing PowerPoint presentations. Our test shows that it imports these flawlessly and can export its slides to PowerPoint’s format, though without its unique transitions and with some loss of resolution. PDF document and QuickTime movie-format exports provide cross-platform viewing.

Keynote’s big drawbacks are huge in a business market dominated by PowerPoint running on Wintel machines. First, it requires a Mac running the Jaguar version of Apple’s OS X operating system (version 10.2 or later), which is how it gets its razor-sharp graphics. Second, it costs $99. Most users at work, including Mac users, get PowerPoint already sitting on their computers as part of Microsoft’s Office Suite.

No company will be able to justify the cost of switching to the Mac OS on the strength of Keynote alone. Even those using Macs will be hard pressed to justify the additional cost if they already have the OS X version of Microsoft’s Office Suite on their machines, which is far superior to the Wintel version.

But with Keynote, Apple gives Mac users that haven’t yet moved up to Jaguar one more reason for doing so. And for any Mac user who just wants their presentations to look that bit more polished–and have their belief in the Apple’s design elegance confirmed–then Keynote is well worth the indulgence.

Article from Forbes.com

Presentations require creativity, which in turn requires an open mind and a willingness to be wrong. Constraints help us focus. During preparations keep in mind: simplicity, clarity, and brevity.  The two key questions during your preparations: What’s your main point? Why does it matter?

Crafting a Story

A presentation is never just about the facts, so make your presentation more story-like.

Design

Design is about making communication as easy and clear for the viewer as possible. First principle: remove nonessential elements and visual clutter.

Presentations are like a conversation which requires your full presence and attention. Don’t worry or even think about mistakes, failure or success, be only in the moment of the presentation. The more you rehearse and practice, the more you will make it look easy and natural. You must appeal with both the logical and the emotional to have a connection with the audience. Finish the presentation a little earlier than the time you have for it. Keep the lights on so that the audience can see you and connect with you. Remove any barriers between you and the audience – avoid podiums and use a remote control for advancing your slides.

We see lots of presentations that use bullet points. While they are fast and easy to use, they are a poor way of getting your message across. A visual presentation is five times more likely to be remembered after three days than a presentation using bullet points.

2. Corny images.

These often have actors showing emotions such as surprise or happiness. The difficulty is that they can look very corny. And if the photos are a few years old, the fashions can look very dated. As with most things in life, taking a little extra time to select that right visual appearance will make all of the difference.

3. Using Clip Art.

An idea behind its time. Clip Art used to be a great way of making a presentation visual – particularly when computers were less powerful and every presentation had be small enough to fit onto a floppy disk. The problem is that clip art now looks very dated compared to a colour photograph. Amazingly Microsoft is still advocating the use of clip art as a great technique to improve your presentations. But if you look at one of Bill Gate’s presentation, which are very visual, you won’t see a single clip art in site.

4. Grainy pictures.

A lot of visual presentations are let down by the use of grainy images. It could be a picture or it could be a logo. Generally these images are taken from a web page and increased in size. The problem is that since they were saved as small files to make them load quickly, they do not enlarge well. They end up looking grainy and very amateur.

5. Copyright theft.

It’s so easy and so tempting just to lift an image off the web. But you must obtain the permission of the copyright owner before you can use any image. Often this is obtained simply by sending an email to the web master. If you don’t, you could easily end up with legal proceedings against you. How will they ever know? Well you never know who might be in your audience, and if the presentation gets distributed electronically you may find that the image that you have taken has an invisible digital water mark hidden in it. A grainy image (see above) is perhaps the biggest sign that it has been taken off a web site.

6. Images purely for decoration.

A picture is worth a thousand words. So why would you slap down any old image just to fill up a bit of space? The image should help to tell your story. One technology company had a slide entitled “Our stable of products.” Instead of an image showing how their products could suit a wide range of businesses, their graphic design agency had added in a picture of a horse! Relevance is everything.

7. Video clips that are too long.

It is very tempting to add in a video clip into a visual presentation. The difficulty is that an audience’s attention p when watching a video is very short. On the other hand the standard company video is often between three and ten minutes long. The audience will typically start to get twitchy after around 60 seconds and start to switch off after two minutes. If you are going to show a video, get it cut down into bite size chunks.

The publishing industry encompasses three main forms of print media: books, magazines, and newspapers. Yes, it’s true the publishing industry has suffered rough times.  The demand for paper by book, magazine, and newspaper decreased due to substitute products – Amazon’s KINDLE is a good example. All this means is the publishing industry will and have to move towards consumer’s alternative products like the IPAD.

Apple’s products are all made as “progressive items”. It’s a known rule to wait a year or two on an apple product because their products are always upgrading the following year. Next year’s products will be faster and better. Apple is good with thinking years down the line. The IPAD is Apple’s entry into the households as the main entertainment items alongside the television. Apple IPAD has already reported dealings with HULU. Also, the IPAD marks a trend in education, which is Learning Distribution. Learning Distribution is mobile educational learning tools – examples are netbooks,  and portals.

What does this mean for the average man and woman? Well, look into the coming years as a technological change in the way we get information and learning. Also, look for older yet valuable versions 0f the IPAD to drop in price until everyone will have one.

First you should determine if it is absolutely necessary to redesign your website.  If you can list at least three reasons for a website redesign that make good business sense, then a site redesign is probably a good idea.  To start your planning, begin making a list:

• List the redesign goals and current website goals.
• Take your best guess about the amount of money it will cost for a redesign. Make sure it is a good use of your marketing dollars and the time your staff will spend working on the project.
• Do not plan a redesign that corresponds with a peak sales cycle.

Addressing The Goals of the Website and Writing an RFQ:

Talk to your visitors, friends and colleagues about what would make the website function better.

• Identify your target audience.
• Identify the goals for the website.
• Identify what you want your visitors to do on the website.
• Make sure your staff can keep the website current.
• Decide if you will use a Content Management System (CMS) to update your own web pages or you will use static HTML web pages.
• Decide if you will be switching hosting at the same time as you are doing the redesign – consider any email address impacts if this is the case.
• Identify well-respected web design firms.
• Decide on a budget for the redesign project.

After you have answered these initial questions, you are ready to write a request for proposals (RFP). This will include a project description, a timeline, a budget, and a more detailed description of deliverables and goals.

Preserving Search Engine Rankings for Redesign

In order to measure the success of your website redesign, you will need to save the current analytics information and search positions of the keyword phrases for your current website. Make sure you have enough data about the current site to compare search rankings, visitors, and website goals.

Most established websites have a presence on search engines and certain search engine rankings on keywords that bring in visitors.  If you change your website, you risk losing your hard-earned search engine rankings. If you change the page names, you will have to direct search engines to the new page using permanent redirects to ensure that the pages that used to rank for phrases still do.  Before you begin a website redesign, you should review analytics on the site and identify important content that is currently ranking and make sure that you convert it over to the new design.

Other things to consider in order to preserve search rankings include site architecture, URL structure, page optimization, links pointing to the site and site interlinking. Changing any of these items can impact your search engine rankings.

Sending Out the RFQ

Send your RFQ to only a few carefully selected web design companies. In the RFQ, ask for examples of their work and references. Include specific examples of sites you like and dislike to give the firm a concrete idea of your ultimate redesign look and usability. Include your logo, font, color palette and design guidelines if you have them.

Once you’ve selected a company, they will work with you to create a Statement of Work (SOW) which is a signed agreement outlining deliverables and expectations on both sides, pricing, timing and payment information.

Inventory Your Content

Review the content on the current site and decide if it needs to be reorganized, contained in the new site, or expanded upon.  Update or remove any data that is incorrect, outdated, or incomplete.  Categorize all remaining content.  If you think you want to include more content, go through your existing newsletters, files, brochures, and other marketing material you can add to the site to help make it a better user experience.  In many cases, if your existing website does not have a supplementary article section or blog, you will want to add one.  If you don’t have enough articles and stories to populate your new blog, make sure you have budgeted time to write new content.  You don’t have to wait until the site is live, and the web development firm will appreciate all content sent in electronic format as soon as it is approved. One key element in understanding the flow of the pages on the new site is the site navigation and sitemap. Create an excel type spread sheet showing how old pages correspond to new pages. This will significantly cut down on design and programming and also helps you envision how the new site navigation will work.

Website Wireframes

Before any branding or design is applied to a site, it is a good idea to develop a website wireframe.  The wireframe is a structural diagram that helps a team visualize the relationships between the site’s pages.  Another aim is to identify what structural elements should appear on each page.  A wireframe helps the design and engineering team understand your vision of the website and how it should function.

Design Mock Ups

At this point, the Web design team usually will show you several mockups of the web design. It is very important to review these carefully and ask questions about functionality.  It is much cheaper to modify your site during the initial design phase than during the implementation phase. It is important to try to visualize how a user will navigate through the site using just a home page and internal page design layout.  The more often you ask your design team to rework the layout, the more expensive the site will be, but it is still cheaper to do it at this point in the process than to wait until the design goes to the programming team.  The web designers will probably schedule a meeting to review how they envision the site will work, and ask you to sign off on the design before proceeding to programming.

Items to Note for a Design in 2010

Many current Web 2.0 or Web 3.0 websites follow these conventions:

• Many sites make use of a CMS and social networking software to facilitate communication on the website.
• Shopping cart software works with as few page changes as possible to simplify the shopping process.  Shipping rates and price discounts are identified as early in the shopping process as possible, and products can be cross-sold, up-sold, rated and commented upon, and search features are more robust to easily allow shoppers to find the specific items they want.
• Shopping carts should be checked to make sure “in stock” products work, but don’t necessarily show the number left in stock.
• Shopping cart shipping time should be correct or overestimated so that customers receive their products when they think they will.
• If your site requires secure pages (for accepting credit card information or protecting private data) you will need to purchase and install an SSL certificate.
• Sites should be clean, fast loading, easy to navigate, and provide a user experience that makes people want to return.
• Avoid Flash introductions.
• Include videos, but avoid “must-view” videos that start playing on the home page, especially video with sound.
• Avoid technology that forces visitors to download software in order to navigate the site.
• Include a place for press releases, include a blog, and include an RSS feed.
• Include links to social sites, bookmarking, and make sure that it is easy to share your pages.
• Ensure the site works on all latest versions of browsers.
• Do not require a Login unless it is necessary – make the user experience as simple and quick as possible.
• Plan for Search Engine Friendly URLs instead of long URLs without any search words.

Programming the Site Redesign

Programmers will usually develop the site on a test server where you can follow along in the process.  The test server resembles your live production server as much as possible. Since content from the live site will probably be used for the new site, you should stop making any changes to the live site from this point on.

You may want to let your site users know that they could be affected by the redesign if this applies to them.

Testing The Redesigned Website

Before going to launch, there are several aspects of the site that need to be tested. The programmers will probably already have performed functionality testing, but you should go in at this point and make sure all the features work the way you envisioned. You may want to try some usability testing where you ask people who have never visited the site before to perform simple tasks, like finding a product, buying something, contacting someone, or retrieving a piece of information. If you expect a large number of visitors coming to your new site, make sure to have your programmers test with tools that simulate excessive traffic.

Launching the Redesigned Website

After testing is complete, the site is ready to move to the production server. The programmers will then back up your existing website so you can go back to it in the event of an emergency. Follow the checklist for going live. Finally, it is nice to send your newsletter subscribers an email letting them know about the brand new site, and perhaps offering them special incentive to visit it.

Checklist for Going Live

• Validate the HTML and CSS using this tool: http://validator.w3.org/
• Check for broken links: http://valet.webthing.com/link/
• Check that Robots.txt is correctly set up
• Check that Sitemap.xml is correctly set up
• Check that all “no follow” meta tags are removed unless otherwise indicated
• Check the site on various window sizes
• Check the site for various font sizes
• Check the site speed to make sure it loads quickly – you can use:  http://www.iwebtool.com/speed_test
• Check errors and image sizes: http://www.netmechanic.com/products/HTML_Toolbox_FreeSample.shtml
• If your site will be used by site impaired people, check accessibility using: http://valet.webthing.com/access/
• Check your site on all current browsers
• Test SSL Certificate if applicable
• Optional – Check that Google Analtyics is installed correctly and goals identified
• Optional – Set up Google webmaster tools
• Add verification files for Google, Yahoo and Bing in meta tags
• Print the pages of your site to make sure they look right
• Turn off Javascript and make sure your site still functions
• Turn off plug-ins like FLASH and make sure your site still functions
• Turn off images and make sure your site still functions.
• Double check the contact forms, payment gateways, shopping cart transactions, and other functionality

Planning a website re-design can be expensive and time consuming. The trick is to plan carefully and find the right balance between strong search engine optimization and usability, test thoroughly and plan carefully.

This post is from Boomtownig.com

Government is the police officers who are protecting our communities, and the servicemen and women who are defending us abroad. Government is the roads you drove in on and the speed limits that kept you safe.  Government is what ensures that mines adhere to safety standards and that oil spills are cleaned up by the companies that caused them. Government is this extraordinary public university -– a place that’s doing lifesaving research, and catalyzing economic growth, and graduating students who will change the world around them in ways big and small.“

Today’s quote is from President Barack Obama at the University of Michigan’s Spring Commencement May 2010. This is a powerful statement. It’s not powerful because of any political party I may or may not have. This statement go beyond party affiliation ( left or right). I think the statement is common sense in America. I say America because it’s naïve to think everyone in the world believes in this outlook on government. In other words, I won’t pretend to know it all. There is weighty reflective verbiage that every person should ponder upon regardless of political or social views. I like to think “government” is here to protect, service, and be respectful of me. These ideals are all in this statement. These ideals can be liberating.

The ideals of the government creating peace and order, government’s role is to help the citizens do what they cannot. Government is important but it should not be the very definition of how we live. And if the government’s role is to protect, service, and respect the people. The definition of our lives will have great benefits. Maybe, I am idealistic but I ponder on the simple statement , “We the people”.

watch the video here.

Program Used:

Flash

Photoshop

Dreamweaver