I’ve written previously about my love/hate affair with WordPress as a website builder. As I said back then, one of the things I hate is how it draws hackers like bees to a honeypot. But they’re killer bees. And they’re getting worse.
7 lessons I’ve learned about working from home… thanks to my kitten
Working on your own can get lonely at times. I’ve tried co-working. I’ve tried working in cafes. I’ve tried apps like coffitivity.
But what’s finally done the trick is getting a kitten. It’s been many years since I had a pet and I’d forgotten just how much companionship they provide.
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Websites for a stressed-out world
Last month I was fortunate to travel to the UK to attend the annual Generate London conference for web designers. Of all the great talks, probably my favourite session was an unexpected one, entitled “Designing for Crisis”.
The story of a website redesign
You know the old saying “A woman’s work is never done”? And the one about “a painter’s house is never painted”? Combine those two and you get “A web designer woman’s website is never done”. My own website is the first one I ever published (not including the ones I created at uni, which weren’t made public). It just turned 5 years old. Which is really old in web years!
My love/hate affair with WordPress
The working title for this blog was originally Why I Hate WordPress. But I decided that was a little too harsh a stance to take against the world’s most popular blogging platform. And as I wrote I realised I needed to reveal both sides of the coin because, as I always say… it depends.
Working ON the business, not just IN it
We’re nearly half way through the calendar year. Already! It’s a good time to assess how things are going, don’t you agree? For me, the first six months of this year was overflowing with a lot of firsts.
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Fonts Glorious Fonts
You know that song from Oliver?
Back in the old days (though not as far back as Oliver)… websites used to be restricted to a pretty small variety of fonts – and we quickly got bored of them. Nowadays the internet is littered with so many different fonts that it can be very confusing to choose the right ones for your website.
What makes a successful Home page
Just as many people will, against popular wisdom, judge a book by its cover, people are very quick to judge your website by its homepage.
And if the ‘synopsis’ they read (like the back cover of a book) only talks about how great the author is, and not the exciting ride they’ll be taken on within the storyline, they get no sense of why they should read on.
Website Navigation – common mistakes to avoid
Imagine sailing the world a few hundred years ago with a faulty compass? Or trying to follow in Captain Cook’s footsteps with a bent sextant? (Don’t know what a “bent sextant” is? Look it up!)
Translate that to modern day (first world) problems such as finding your way through an unfamiliar city with an outdated Navman roadmap. Or using a website with a poorly designed navigation menu.
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When it’s good to be a sheep. And when to break free of the flock.
Welcome to the Year of the Sheep on the Chinese lunar calendar. The Chinese consider sheep to be lucky animals – they spend their time following each other from one green patch of grass to the next without too many cares or worries. They never have to do any hard labour, which is left to the Ox.
Sounds idyllic, doesn’t it?
Continue reading “When it’s good to be a sheep. And when to break free of the flock.”