What work at WSD are you most proud of?

All our launches! Every time we launch a new site it feels like sending my kids out into the world – anxious and proud . We do awesome development work here and it is always a great feeling to see a completely custom project go live.

What is the best part about working at WSD?

The team for sure. The people that work here are an excellent team. They all have strengths that contribute to a well-rounded, butt-kicking group

What cool project are you working on right now?

We just launched Smartmeetings.com, which was a huge project because it was the roll out of our WSD framework 1.5. We made big strides in the flexibility of our admin for that site. I am very proud to launch that one.

Film Connection is the next big project out the door. This one also uses the new 1.5 framework, but is a 100% expandable page manager, complete with mouse-over image control and drag and drop page sorting. It’s really cool!

If you weren’t working at WSD, what other kind of work would you be doing?

Wishing I worked at WSD, haha. No honestly, I love this job. I couldn’t imagine working anywhere else.

What is your hometown?

Born in San Francisco, raised in Marin. I will always be a California girl.

What is your educational background?

I started off college as a marketing major, but I ended up graduating with a degree in programming. I think it helps my niche of client services vs programmer logic

What do you like doing outside of work?

I am a huge video game buff so I spend most of my time playing games. I love RPGs, adventure games and platformers the most, but I will play the occasional shooter.

If I am not playing video games, I am usually watching different anime series or going out to a movie.

Where is your favorite place that you have traveled to?

I loved going to Thailand the most. The country is so beautiful and the sales are amazing!

Mac or PC?

Haha, do you even need to ask? PC all the way! Pfft on Steam for Mac, I still got the lock down on 90% of the games market.

Do you have a favorite quotation? If so, what is it?

“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.” -Albert Einstein

Meet the WebSight Design Team: Vanessa Thomas is a post from: WebSight Design, Inc. company blog. With headquarters in the San Francisco bay area, WebSight Design, Inc. has been providing world class web engineering, creative design and hosting solutions since 1995. WebSight Design

1. Remember the Rule of Thirds.

Ever wonder why TheGridSystem.org is a 12-grid layout? It’s no accident that 12 is a multiple of three.

For a couple of thousand years, the Rule of Thirds, or the Golden Ratio for you mathematically-inclined folks, has worked an aesthetic guideline which states that a given visual space (your web site layout) should be divided horizontally and vertically into thirds, and that important design elements should be placed along the dividing lines, or at their intersections. This, the rule says, provides the most visually appealing layout. Both left- and right-brained figures throughout history, from Euclid to Rothko, have utilized this rule to create ingenious observations and works of art.

The Rule of Thirds is often tagged as the lazy man’s way to lay things out, but that’s really because of its simplicity and universality. In short, the rule works.

Web layouts are a bit trickier since the monitor size and screen resolution on everyone’s individual computers is a variable that the designer cannot control; however, if you stick with non-fluid layouts to constrain the horizontal space of your design, or use percentages in your CSS (a bit trickier, especially if non-scalable images are involved), the Rule of Thirds can provide you with focal points and design layouts that web users find easy to visually digest. Another popular method of utilizing the Rule is to design an “impact area” (often dominated by a “hero graphic”) that is divided in thirds aesthetically and is designed to be the primary focal point for the page. As the user scrolls down, simple 1/3 ratio columns for the text or remaining content can be used. Columns work well in vertically variable workspaces.

2. KISS all those pretty fonts goodbye.

Remember that annoying acronym we all learned in school? Just in case you’ve been living on a deserted island for the last decade or so, KISS stands for “Keep It Simple, Stupid.” And that’s precisely the best way to use type fonts.

I’m not saying you can’t indulge in unique, hand-created typography, or that you can’t mix typefaces, ever. But it must be done with care and artistry. Adding in that really cool font you downloaded for free from the link your nephew in HTML class sent you may not be your best bet for communicating your client’s message.

In fact, communicating your client’s message is the goal of the web site you’re designing. If that message isn’t already contained in the design of the typeface you want to use, skip the typeface and go neutral. Something like Helvetica Bold works incredibly well to get messages across (which is why we’ve seen such a resurgence of it in the self-publishing & blogging trends). The type font does not interfere with the actual words. You have something like 1/gazillionth of a second to get your message across to the web user, so do it the fastest, clearest possible way. If that isn’t with a fancy font that says it all for you, then say it with words, and make the words concise and easy to absorb.

I like to use no more than three fonts (excluding any fancy or unduplicatable logo fonts) in my designs: one main graphic font, one secondary graphic font, and one web-safe HTML font. Save the pretty stuff for non-text graphics.

3. Don’t give up.

Sounds like touchy-feely pandering, right? Well, it’s true.

These days, Photoshop, CSS, and your own artistic talents can pretty much do anything with a layout. Anything you want. If you have an idea in your head that’s just not translating onto a sketch pad or a monitor, keep at it.

Sometimes we all get a little bit too reliant on filters and effects, and when the desired outcome isn’t met with a drop-shadow or a gradient, it’s tempting to settle for “good enough.” Don’t do it. Nobody ever won a design award by settling. No client was ever thrilled to pay for a design that was settled on. And no web user has ever been wowed by “good enough.” If that brush stroke isn’t working for you like it should, go old school: get out your ink, brushes, and watercolor paper and draw precisely the stroke you need. If that typeface just isn’t quite right, pull it into Illustrator and tweak the anchor points until it is. If you think the paper effect you’ve made isn’t convincing, grab a real piece of paper and tear the edges, fold the corners, crumple the middle until it is.

There are also plentiful tutorials and resources on the web for just about any specific effect you’re trying to achieve. Do a Google search and see what you come up with. At worst, you’ll slightly expand your knowledge. At best, you’ll learn skills and tricks that will make your web layouts really shine.

And if all else fails, get up, and take a walk around your neighborhood. Fresh air is a great re-motivator, and inspiration is all around us, all the time.

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Stephanie Long is an artist and designer with over a decade of web-specific experience currently lending her talents as Creative Director at WebSight Design. She believes that listening to the client is the key to a successful project, and that listening to yourself is the key to a happy life. And she actually likes deadlines — go figure. Stephanie recently got a Twitter account and now feels much younger.

Like this post? You might like this one, too: Design Is Not A Pretty Picture

Three Tips To A Successful Web Site Design is a post from: WebSight Design, Inc. company blog. With headquarters in the San Francisco bay area, WebSight Design, Inc. has been providing world class web engineering, creative design and hosting solutions since 1995. WebSight Design

Over the years, we have built our own PHP development environment, based on the open-source Zend framework. We have a strong belief in the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture, and strict version control with Subversion (SVN), because the results are cleaner, more efficient code. Utilizing the Zend framework also gives us access to the large and expanding library for Rapid Application Development (RAD), while still having the flexibility to customize the framework and make it our own.

Using the MVC design pattern allows us to have a clear separation of business logic and presentation logic.  This presents a distinct advantage when building web applications because it separates what the user sees from what goes on in the background.  This moves away from mixing data-layer code, such as database queries, in with your display code and allows us to create reusable modules, such as photo galleries and shopping carts, for significantly faster builds in large applications.

The MVC architecture also offers ease of maintenance, since each component (model, view and controller) is self contained, performing upgrades and changes, such as switching databases from Access to MySQL, become much less painful and cumbersome then in the past.

We make it a priority to stay on the frontline of the ever changing technology in the Web and Internet industry; currently, we are working on a 2.0 version of our framework that will use portions of Domain Driven Design (DDD) to create clean structure and more efficient code patterns.  One of the biggest changes on the way is a central code base with customizable modules.  With this 2.0 framework we will be able to increase our build time on large projects, and push upgrades to a central code base rather then individual applications.

But don’t think that since we developed our own PHP framework we are averse to working with other languages.  Just send your application our way and we are happy to roll up our sleeves, jump into your Ruby/Flash/ASP project and get our hands dirty.

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Founded in 1995, WebSight Design offers business clients a range of website design and development services, including website programming, website hosting, website marketing, and colocation management.

WebSight Design in Development is a post from: WebSight Design, Inc. company blog. With headquarters in the San Francisco bay area, WebSight Design, Inc. has been providing world class web engineering, creative design and hosting solutions since 1995. WebSight Design

Rob, originally from Lake Park, FL and a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, has been with WSD for about four years. As the Lead Engineer of our web development team, he is responsible for overall code base architecture and also day-to-day coding on top-tier clients.

What is your educational background?

I attended Florida Institute of Technology a long time ago in a state far far away.

What are the three most exciting/memorable things that have happened to you since you have been working at WSD (inside or outside of work)?

- I worked on Santana’s official site, providing some flash components.

- I got a Mac, by choice even.

- My son started kindergarten, where does the time go?

What work at WSD are you most proud of?

Our current site framework (built upon Zend’s application framework) that is still going strong with no major changes for the past couple of years.

What is the best part about working at WSD?

The people here.  We really have an outstandingly talented team here.

What do you like doing outside of work?

I like going to the gym, reading articles about nutrition and fitness in general.  Family activities.  Cooking on the grill.

What website do you visit most often?

Google. The current project I’m working on. Facebook.

Mac or PC?

Both actually, I’m bicomputational

What type of mobile phone do you have? Why did you pick it?

iPhone, mainly for application development, but my wife got one first and I can’t let her have a better phone than I do.

Do you have a favorite quotation?

“Are we having fun yet?” or “I didn’t do it, nobody saw me do it and you can’t prove anything” – Bart Simpson

If you weren’t working at WSD, what other kind of work would you be doing?

Some form of web development or maybe a personal trainer.

Meet the WebSight Design Team: Rob Mudgett is a post from: WebSight Design, Inc. company blog. With headquarters in the San Francisco bay area, WebSight Design, Inc. has been providing world class web engineering, creative design and hosting solutions since 1995. WebSight Design

Billboard Magazine August 2009

Download the PDF article here

WebSight Design in the News is a post from: WebSight Design, Inc. company blog. With headquarters in the San Francisco bay area, WebSight Design, Inc. has been providing world class web engineering, creative design and hosting solutions since 1995. WebSight Design

2009 is going to be an interesting year…

Happy New Year from WSD! is a post from: WebSight Design, Inc. company blog. With headquarters in the San Francisco bay area, WebSight Design, Inc. has been providing world class web engineering, creative design and hosting solutions since 1995. WebSight Design