Writings from Force 5 Basecamp

02/11/16

On a search engine results page (SERP), the listing of results returned by a search engine in response to a keyword query generally show two bits of information from your webpage, the title tag and the meta description. TITLE TAG – Title tags / Page Titles are critical to giving users a quick insight into the content of a result

01/04/16

One sign that you might need a new website is that it doesn’t look good on mobile devices.  According to a recent study, mobile device usage is significantly higher than desktop usage, with people viewing 51% of the content on mobile versus only 42% on desktop/laptop.   (Five years ago, it was 12.5% mobile vs. 75% desktop/laptop).  Mobile Friendly Not Mobile

10/05/15

I recently wrote a post about the importance of having a mobile-friendly website.  I have created a dashboard in Google Analytics to see how your mobile traffic stacks up against your desktop traffic.  If your mobile traffic doesn’t fare well against your desktop traffic, you might need to look at making the website more responsive. To download the GA dashoboard,

08/24/15

Google’s new Project Sunroof uses its expansive data in mapping and computing resources to help calculate the best solar plan for you.  Project Sunroof looks up your home in Google Maps and combines that information with other databases to create your personalized roof analysis. Project Sunroof recommends an installation size to generate close to 100% of your electricity use, based

01/30/15

Is your favorite Pet’s name also your password? How about your street name-or your favorite sports team? Are you using password as your password? And here’s a good one: 123456….Yikes! Danger, Danger, Will Robinson. Get ready to be hacked!!! SplashData.com has announced its annual list of the 25 most common passwords found on the Internet – thus making them the

08/28/13

This time of year kids all across the country are heading back to school. One of the changes that many students are encountering is the shift away from printed textbooks to digital media. For example, the New Prairie school distract in New Carlisle, Indiana is giving all students iPads to replace textbooks. Other schools are giving their students laptop computers

07/02/13

I love to travel and I love the Internet. The Internet has opened up the world and made it easier to travel. Finding the best price for a flight, where you can simultaneously search 1,521 different sites at once and spit out the perfect way to wing your way to adventure, well that rocks. Being able track down the perfect

06/19/13

Getting the most out of your online store is paramount. There’s a good chance your online store exists to actually make money. The trick is to get the most from your visitors by knowing what it takes to get your visitors to return. One essential ingredient in creating a “sticky” online store: Engagement. But how do we create engagement? There

05/01/13

Recently the design community has been debating the trend of skeuomorphism in design – specifically UI design. While the debate itself has blurred to the point of debating about what was being debated about, the core question remained: “When does Skeuomorphism make sense in UI design?” What is Skeuomorphism? In relation to UI design, Skeuomorphism is the method of creating an

03/01/13

Every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn to code:

02/03/12

Seventy to Eighty percent of those who watch TV, also are watching a “second screen” during the same time. That second screen is a smartphone, Ipad, or laptop. And what are we doing? We’re checking email, surfing the web, and looking up material that has to do with the show we’re watching! This weekend will be no exception. During the

01/20/12

Anyone who has done development, design, or IT knows that over the course of working on a project, you collect various “nuggets” of knowledge that you ever learn or find. Here I’m going to share some of what I’ve discovered that may be able to help you in your own projects. I have cited the original source of the information