tech

Blog Post: Responsively Retrofitting An Existing Site

For some, this Smashing Magazine article is sacrilege. How could you possibly take a complex existing website and retrofit it to a responsive design? For others, it can seem darn near impossible. What if you have too many features and customization build in to your platform?

Many companies (including my own) are asking themselves similar questions in weighing how to move their products ahead of the curve and onto a single platform. Part of that push and pull will be taking a hard look at their Google data to see what scared cow of a feature isn’t really that necessary.

Several of the new, responsive designs I have been testing lately are taking a minimal approach. It’s easier to have objects wrap to the size of the screen if there are less of them. We all know that many industries don’t have that option.

In most situations, it is possible to make this transition without rebuilding the framework and platform from scratch. As my boss told me, it’s not about showing off the entire package at once. Making the responsive transition is more about a plan that delivers incremental progress. 

Blog Post: Responsively Retrofitting An Existing Site

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Blog Post: What Can You Break?

I am always encouraged when writers can dig nuggets of truth out of other articles and interviews. What separates thought leaders from the rest is the ability to see what is just under the surface and apply it to their area of expertise. Such is the case with writer Kevin Ashton, and his Medium post on what made Steve Jobs great.

Of course, many have written about the former head of Cupertino and his genius. We didn’t need to be informed of that. Articles, books, and soon movies will be telling aspiring creators for years how awesome Jobs was. What I liked in particular about the post from Ashton was how a simple question can turn a good idea into great:

“Why doesn’t it work?”

Jobs was famous for asking this question about all products, including his. There is always something that can be refined to make something better. Often, this contradicts the stance companies have regarding their offerings that are “good enough.”

Not that they would ever admit that. They just don’t work on improving. My company was an industry leader several years ago, but that can only last for so long before competitors catch up and start to put pressure on you. While we still provide our customers an amazing suite of products, I am not talking out of school too much to admit we did not maintain our lead in some areas.

Catching up takes up a lot of energy. Regardless of the industry, most companies know what that feels like. Many who don’t have a mobile strategy in place should be feeling this strain right now.

When looking at your product line, don’t think of the things you like about it right now. That’s for the marketing department to discuss. Product people need to look at what’s wrong. Ashton’s equation of sales plus customers equaling nothing broken is really dangerous. You may have customers now, but your competitors are selling currently as well. Nothing being broken can turn into broke really fast. 

Instead of waiting for that to happen, look for something to break on your own. Perhaps your platform needs to be re-written, but to do that means breaking it down and slowly building that up. Instead of being upset, your customers will applaud your desire to improve their experience or more easily add features.

When you let someone else help you realize your product is broken, it takes more energy to catch up than if you do it on your own. Go find something and break it.

Blog Post: What Can You Break?

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Blog Post: Connected Means Consuming

With all the hyperbole about the Internet being a living breathing organism of a country, most are spot on. Instead of corporations that provide rules, structure and profits to maintain, we watch this conglomerate of mediums evolve with its users better than any other previous form of broadcasts.

I enjoyed reading the results of this survey the Financial Times ran about how it’s content is consumed my type of device. Stats were broken out by print, desktop, tablet and phone with amazing results. Not surprisingly, the financial news provider has seen use sort of meld together in a solid form of consumption.

Basically, we consume all day long through any means necessary.

This could be related to the fact that we are all bored at work, but I think it goes deeper. Never before could I use my walk to the bathroom to check Twitter. Reading in bed was once the only think I could do while falling asleep.

I am always connected, and I need new stuff to consume.

For many of you, this concept is not new or surprising. I think what really drives this thought for me is we now have hard metrics proving what we have always thought. We are constantly finding new ways to consume.

I wonder what will be the breaking point.

Blog Post: Connected Means Consuming

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