Ohio Web Pro News

A little while back we started a section to help clients with issues or questions they may have with their website, hosting or email, located here. If you have any questions or suggestions for additional topics to cover, please let us know here.

Thank you,
Eric

Technology is great, but when it gets in the way it can be a pain. When I see technology that is there to “just be there” or its retrofitted into something it wasn’t originally meant for it makes me wonder. The tech we use must not turn into a monster and destroy usability.

For example, the other day I saw a TV commercial for a car. This commercial went on to tell me that my automobile has too many buttons, and that I would be better off having a car with a tablet style interface. At first I thought it was a neat idea, but then I considered it some more. Do I really want to navigate a menu system on a touch screen interface to crank the tunes, instead of simply hitting the “volume up” button? In a familiar car, buttons can usually be accessed without taking your eyes off the road. Is it too far to say this is a crazy idea without even first trying it? I miss my cell phone that had buttons that I could dial without even looking at it.

Companies that pioneer these new ideas tend to sell the technology, and not the “why” and “how.” A good example of this is the bank that offers check depositing by taking a picture of it. The commercial they air shows a woman snapping a picture and smiling.  It’s a great idea and service, but they neglect to depict or mention the fact that you have to take two pictures, one of the front and back, and then send the check to them. It doesn’t sound like too much extra, but over simplifying a new product is common. A new technology should be thoroughly researched before adopting.

The technology behind web development is in constant motion. While it is important to keep up with new tech, it is equally important to keep focus on usability and the user experience. If you find yourself working extra to use a new piece of tech, there is a chance it will turn into a monster as well.

“Following standards and writing valid code is important in that it pulls us ahead as a society of coders/designers…HOWEVER… you should not let that stand in the way a creativity when the project allows for it. At one time, it was standard that all ships have sails. It is creative thinking that blends new technologies and sets new standards.”

How does this relate to my new site launch? By the technologies used in the ways I did, even though most developers will say… “Can’t be done,”  “it’s a disaster waiting to happen,” or “your site will be lost from search engines.”

Let me explain the site first. When you go from page to page on my site, the “page” never really reloads. Clicking a button prompts the site to get that page’s information and load it, without leaving the home page, reloading or seeing a “flash.” What is the benefit? It is more elegant, easier on the server, and most important, other elements on the page are not disturbed. For example, if you go to the site controls, and play the background movie, you can still surf the site without disturbing the movie.

Don’t get me wrong, this has been done before… but usually only in certain environments. This is very common in web applications where visitor or search engines do not have access. There are a lot of concerns that I had to overcome, such as fallbacks, search engine spidering, bookmarking, using the back button, possible errors and it goes on from there. In other words, for a little noticed function, it is a lot of work and testing, but it is sometimes the small things that sets us apart from out competition.

More about the technology used: The site uses Jquery, so if you have JavaScript turned off, you won’t experience it. Jquery listens for a link to be requested, parses the requested url and retrieves the data from that page. If there is an error retrieving the data, JavaScript then redirects the user to that page naturally. Once Jquery has the data, it fades out and slides shut the content area, replaces the data with the new, then slides open and fades in the content area. Fading and sliding normalizes the page so it does not “jump” with the new data. Because Jquery “listens” for actual links to be requested, search engines and spiders see the site and links as normal, and crawls the site. They do not care about the Jquery code. For incoming links and bookmarks, a hashtaging system is used to get the visitor to the right content. The hashtag also solves the problem of the back button not working, so it is twofold. Lastly, the htaccess file prevents the possibility of duplicate content, such as two pages of the same content (such as ohiowebpro.com and ohiowebpro.com/index.php.) If you have any questions, please contact me here.

Now live it the Washington County Farmers Mutual Insurance Association website at www.wcfmia.com.

Washington County Farmers Mutual Insurance Association was established in April of 1897. Fifteen men started the company by paying their share of the cost at $2.00 each, a total of $30.00 to start the business.

At the present time there are 4 full time employees and 1 part-time employee in the office, 16 agencies and 5 directors. They invite you to look at their products and if you have any questions or would like a quote, please contact them through their website, or call 740.373.5548 and they will be glad to assist you.

The new site, Classic-Carpet-Cleaning.com is now live.

Classic Carpet Cleaning is dedicated to excellence in customer service and will do their best to restore you carpets to like-new condition.

Their new site, employs the latest in HTML 5 and CSS using the “boilerplate” framework, all backed by the OWP Content Management System.

To find out what Classic Carpet Cleaning can do for your home or place of business, please visit their website, or feel free to contact Steve at 1 740-678-8510 and tell him Eric sent you.