How dramatic?

1. Client Demand: In the past 2 weeks I have had 3 clients request iOS (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch) apps and even more request mobile versions of web and micro-sites. That’s right, request, not something we were pitching. We’ve pitched iOS apps before, but a client has never specifically requested one (keep in mind we are not primarily a business-to-consumer agency). To be clear, they’re not just requesting simple HTML5 based apps, but true gesture driven, direct manipulation-designed, Objective-C apps. Previously iOS projects came up maybe once a month, and even then rarely became a reality in StudioNorth’s B-to-B client sphere. Here’s a graph showing the approximate growth curve.



2. Driver Shift: As I mentioned in my earlier post, the entire technology industry has shifted due to mobile. To understand this point go back and read the last part of my post, here’s an excerpt:
   

   The entire technology industry has already shifted right under our very noses. How? The enterprise used to drive the technology industry. People used what IT gave them. IT locked things down to keep the company, and the employees, safe and secure. Now things are different. The consumer is driving technology, not the enterprise. Now the market share swap between AAPL and MSFT makes all the sense in the world.

3. Advanced Software: Autodesk Inc. recently announced that it’s bring AutoCAD® WS to iOS. While this is impressive, even more impressive is what’s going on with 3D and gaming. Epic Games Inc. just released an iOS version if their Unreal 3 Engine. This is, no pun intended, epic. The Unreal Engine is a fully baked real-time 3D engine that can, and will, be used for massive multiplayer online gaming systems. Epic has already released tools for developer to create environments. This is a testament to what’s possible now, and a predictor of what is to come. These devices are personal, intimate, windows into new, uncharted, even uncreated lands. Literally. You can read more about it on Epic’s site, but here’s an except to give you an idea:
   

   “This is a testament to the sheer power of iOS devices as up until now, Unreal Engine 3 has typically been used to create high-end gaming experiences on game consoles and computers,” said Epic Games President Dr. Michael Capps. “And we’re not just keeping it to ourselves. We’re putting Unreal Engine 3 technology into the hands of game developers all over the world, and we can’t wait to see the apps they make next.”

   A small team of Epic’s programmers, artists and testers created “Epic Citadel” in just eight weeks of development time. Unreal Engine 3 is scalable yet packed with the same tools hundreds of thousands of users work with to create games, simulations and animated content.

4. Seven Mass Media: Mobile has the potential to reach anybody through ANY MEDIUM. Mobile can, and is, doing everything that all forms of earlier mass media can do. The previous six are, in order of inception: Print, Recording, Cinema, Radio, Television, and the Internet. In addition to the abilities of these six, mobile has its own unique attributes:
   

   Mobile is the first personal mass media
   Mobile is permanently carried
   Mobile is always-on
   Mobile has a built-in payment mechanism
   Mobile is available at the point of creative inspiration
   Mobile has the most accurate audience measurement
   Mobile captures the social context of media consumption
   Mobile allows augmented reality to be used in media

   Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_mass_media

So, forget about clinging to the past, things are changing more now than ever before. Forget what you knew about what was possible before and start thinking about hyper-local, social, interaction design, and the cloud all in a mobile framework. Don’t say there’s nothing new under the sun, because this is all new. It’s everything that’s old…plus. In my book, that spells new.

Andy leads the interactive offerings and staff engineers at StudioNorth. He consults with clients on strategic technology direction and personally oversees the key phases of the iterative development cycle for many large technology projects. Whether for public web sites, private extranets, or custom applications, Andy uses his rich experience to provide results-driven solutions to our clients. He’s known for being a visionary and for coining the phrase, “conservative wow” in reference to StudioNorth’s ability to create high-impact projects for some of our more conventional audiences. If you want to bring your brand beyond “2.0″, Andy is your connection.

Want to track Andy a little closer? You can follow him on Twitter.

Note: This uses the flash.filters classes GlowFilter, BlurFilter, DropShadowFilter, and BevelFilter, NOT the mx.effects classes. Maybe one day we’ll create one with those if they are any different. Here it is for you, maybe it can help you as well. You can right-click to get the source code as well, should you feel so inclined.

Andy leads the interactive offerings and staff engineers at StudioNorth. He consults with clients on strategic technology direction and personally oversees the key phases of the iterative development cycle for many large technology projects. Whether for public web sites, private extranets, or custom applications, Andy uses his rich experience to provide results-driven solutions to our clients. He’s known for being a visionary and for coining the phrase, “conservative wow” in reference to StudioNorth’s ability to create high-impact projects for some of our more conventional audiences. If you want to bring your brand beyond “2.0″, Andy is your connection.

Want to track Andy a little closer? You can follow him on Twitter.

Impacting Markets

You might be aware of this but the iPad has already begun to disrupt many markets. Some big like the netbook market which has already been relegated to “niche”, and some small like the comic book market. The device is a game changer so if you’re not paying attention it’s time to start. As I mentioned before it’s impacting smallish markets in a big way, like the digital comic industry as posted in CNN under iPad boosts appeal of digital comics.

Industry observers say the iPad’s size, portability and color screen make it a good fit for reading comics. Before the tablet computer launched in April, fans could read digital comics in several ways, neither of which were ideal: on a desktop or laptop computer, or via a smartphone’s tiny screen, panel by panel. As for e-readers, which are primarily made for black-and-white text — forget it.

“The iPad is much better suited for comics, and on that platform, comics are expanding very rapidly,” said Milton Griepp, president and publisher of the trend-watching magazine, ICv2, which reported sales of between $500,000 and $1 million in digital comic sales on mobile apps in 2009.

It’s also impacting the way we consume our social networks. I’m a pretty avid social network user and the iPad apps Flipboard and Pulse have radically changed the way I consume the information. Flipboard goes so far as to allow me to read Twitter like I would read a magazine. It loads my followers as “contributors”, and pull the links they tweet into articles ready to read right inside the app. Innovation to the extreme. (See First look at “revolutionary” social news iPad app: Flipboard for more)

There are countless other examples of this ranging from casual gaming to keeping track of daily tasks. So with that being said, let’s get to why any of this really matters anyway.

Business Impact

Recently I had a CIO I know email me asking for help. His boss had purchased an iPad and he was so enamored by it that he wanted to do away with his laptop all together. The CIO was asking for my insight on how to convince his boss otherwise. You see an iPad is really great for content consumption, and OK for light content creation, but for heavy content creation it takes a laptop. Business leaders, as it turns out, tend to create a lot of content.

We had lunch and I shared some insights and he listened while he ate. He’s a smart guy whom I respect a lot so I was feeling kind of self-conscience about how much I was talking and that my plate was still untouched when his meal was already finished. When I had exhausted most of my knowledge I asked him a question. I said, “So what do you think IT needs to do about all these new devices and social networks that employees are bringing to the workplace? How will IT control company information and employee productivity?” and I began to eat furiously. This was my “give me some time to eat” question. This was a question I had heard in countless IT leadership round tables on which I’ve participated over the past few years. It seemed every IT Director and CIO in Chicagoland was trying to figure out what to do about the rogue iPhone employees and the “all throughout the day” Facebook users. They always ended with the same solution, create a company policy against usage…which we all know is like trying to tell a millennial to cut their hands off. What this CIO sitting across from me said next rocked my mind. He was so it was so right on – he said,

“You know Andy, in 3-5 years I don’t think IT will provision any devices to employees. None at all. Employees will be responsible for purchasing their own phones, devices, laptops, tablets, etc. They will bring them to IT and IT will enable their access levels appropriately. My responsibility, he said, will be to keep the information safe on the company side of the firewall. That’s it.”

And there it was. Plain as day. The proverbial “Ah-Ha” moment. The entire technology industry has already shifted right under our very noses. How? The enterprise used to drive the technology industry. People used what IT gave them. IT locked things down to keep the company, and the employees, safe and secure. Now things are different. The consumer is driving technology, not the enterprise. Now the market cap swap between AAPL and MSFT makes all the sense in the world.

Andy leads the interactive offerings and staff engineers at StudioNorth. He consults with clients on strategic technology direction and personally oversees the key phases of the iterative development cycle for many large technology projects. Whether for public web sites, private extranets, or custom applications, Andy uses his rich experience to provide results-driven solutions to our clients. He’s known for being a visionary and for coining the phrase, “conservative wow” in reference to StudioNorth’s ability to create high-impact projects for some of our more conventional audiences. If you want to bring your brand beyond “2.0″, Andy is your connection.

Want to track Andy a little closer? You can follow him on Twitter.

Recently there have been many impressive web sites created with Papervision 3D. Some of these sites are not only used for 3D aesthetic purposes but also used as interactive pieces. One such site is: Absolut’s, “In An Absolut World” http://www.absolut.com/iaaw/. This site features interactive 3D cubes that may be stacked on top of each other to form different shapes. They may be grabbed with the mouse and thrown around on screen. They may be rotated and spun in different directions, where the speed changes depending on the speed at which the users’ mouse moves. It is a impressive site to play with, however it does have its pitfalls. One of its pitfalls is the camera movement and viewpoint. When looking around the site the camera follows the movements of the mouse which makes the user experience less enjoyable. It feels and seems somewhat awkward and annoying when you want to look at the cubes at a certain angle but you simply can’t, the camera moves and changes the view.

However, a 3D web interface which has excellent camera control is, “The Eco Zoo” http://ecodazoo.com/. The user may control the camera by grabbing inside the viewport and moving the mouse in any direction which in turn allows the camera great flexibility in its movements. Not only does this site have excellent camera control but the interface is very robust, it incorporates both 2D and 3D navigation formats. The main navigation is a cardboard 3D tree with characters making their home on or in it which may be interacted with or they may be selected via a 2D menu at the top of the screen. The interface was created very intuitively and makes navigation to the characters’ specific pop-up books very simple. “The Eco Zoo” is not only an excellent example of a 3D web interface, but is also educational and it handles some current problems with these types of interfaces very effectively.

Current problems with 3D interfaces deter users away from them for the following reasons: They don’t really use the third dimension in a way that is useful or convenient, computer resources demand is high, and displaying large amounts of data may become overwhelming. These may seem like significant problems with 3D interfaces but they may be worked out solved effectively. One site which has worked out a way to display large amounts of information in an intuitive 3D web interface is MSNBC’s “Spectra visual newsreader” http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24207533/. “Spectra” has been able to effectively meld a 2D web interface with a 3D web interface to make it much more useful, entertaining and aesthetically pleasing experience to the user.

In order to make 3D interfaces more useful and convenient we first need to develop simple applications and interactive environments which are intuitive to users. Despite everything we can do today with 3D interfaces we are more than likely able to accomplish the same things with 2D interfaces. However the 3D interfaces are much more entertaining and engaging to users. Such is the case with the White Voids web site: http://www.whitevoid.com/application. White Void could have created their site in a 2D space but decided to go 3D because of the spacial and aesthetic value 3D offered. Use of a 3D interface for their site made the user experience exponentially more enjoyable. It also separated them from the norm and made them nationally recognized and known through out the design world for creating one of the best 3D web interfaces.

However, many people are accustomed to a 2D desktop because that is what we see and use on a day to day basis. We place items on our desks and remember where they are using spatial memory. When we do this in a third dimension we also do the same thing, in both ways we are using spatial memory. Both 2D and 3D interfaces require certain amounts of persistence in that when you put something down you expect it to remain there till you get back to it. Persistence will also be required of the user; the user will need to be patient in order to develop efficient usage patterns, the interfaces themselves will need to entertain in order to maintain the user’s interest.

3D interfaces are mainly used for entertainment purposes such as video games or for presenting data which is naturally three dimensional, (CAD, Architecture, etc.) However we are slowly creating 3D web interfaces which are not only aesthetically pleasing and intuitive but are useful 3D web interfaces. Creating a third dimension on the web maintains a user’s interest, provides entertainment value and creates an intuitive experience. When a user picks up a wrench to tighten a bolt with the mouse or interacts with 3D folders in a tree structure they are becoming more accustomed to interacting with a 3D environment. Intuitive interactive 3D environments will pave the path for 3D interfaces. The more we expose ourselves to 3D elements on the web the easier it will be to implement 3D interfaces in an intuitive, entertaining and useful application. The World Wide Web is going in the direction of 3D web interfaces and we may only hope to take steps in the right direction to ensure its success.

Greg Peczkowicz

Greg is an Interface Engineer at StudioNorth. He designs and develops highly complex and usable Web applications for all ranges of StudioNorth’s clientèle. When Greg isn’t programming ActionScript or creating smooth exponentially eased tweens you can find him snowboarding in Wisconsin or kayaking on the Des Plaines river.

There’s only difference between me and the pros—they know how to do all of that consistently, and I don’t.

This seems like a great analogy to illustrate one of the more common trends in video production. Without exaggeration, in the last two weeks I have met four people who claim to be “independent filmmakers”…and these are not people I work with in my industry. It seems that today, everyone is a filmmaker, and with the affordability of a Mac laptop and Final Cut, you will soon be hard pressed to take a ride on the train and not sit next to someone who believes themselves to be the next Scorsese.

Recently, a school teacher friend of mine proudly showed me a video he had made. He had managed to use every single transition and stock visual effect that came with his editing system. I couldn’t help but laugh at the randomness of it all. It resembled what I can only imagine Dr. Frankenstein would have created had he been a video editor. Ironically, some of the effects really did work well with the footage he had. But the others…not so much. And therein lies the difference between the Pros and the Joes.

What is truly surprising is that this do-it-yourself video approach is not only being produced in homes all over the world, but in businesses as well. What I am finding more and more is that businesses are deciding to give the “pro-sumer” platforms—and “expertise”—a chance. Of course you shouldn’t expect to see the next Super Bowl spot created with Premier Elements, but you are beginning to see a great number of companies buying a camera and software and assigning an intern the task of creating videos for internal use. While certainly economical, this is, often as not, a recipe for inadequate and ineffective video (and a frustrated intern).

Please understand, this is not a critique of any “creative services” department your company may have. Some of the most impressive work I have ever seen has been produced internally at certain corporations. To be fair, your internal department often has a better understanding of what might work for your internal audience than an outside agency. There are many times, however, that it makes more sense for your message, your medium, and your brand identity to allow an outside agency to create professional video to support your brand.

A few short years ago it was quite common, particularly in the larger corporations, for companies to invest heavily in professionally-produced, high-end internal video. This might include an internally streamed message from the CEO, an online training series or even a keepsake DVD of the company holiday party. You still often see high-end, professional video for some brand and product launches, and many company-wide initiatives. But in these days of smaller wallets and tighter belts, individual departments are becoming more likely to go the more cost-effective route of in-house video production.

So what has triggered this? Beyond economic concerns, a big factor is probably the popularity of online video services like YouTube. I heard a client recently use the term “YouTube-like” when referring to a style of video. It took a little while for what he meant to sink in. The “style” he was referring to was grainy, poorly lit video, and weak audio …but with highly creative content. I totally get the content side of it, but it was quite surprising to discover this new acceptability for lower production/post-production quality. Professionals in the television industry have been saying for years that “content is king.” And maybe the shifting economy and newer distribution structures are finally validating that.

It’s also really easy to become captivated by the prospect of millions of people watching the video you created on a shoestring budget, loving it, and sharing it with others. Still, how much audio and visual quality are businesses really willing to sacrifice? After all, all you’re usually going to get from a shoestring budget is…well, shoestrings.

To me, the decision of which direction to take and how much to invest in video solutions centers on how closely your brand is attached to the video you are creating. For instance, filming your own video of the company’s Oktoberfest celebration is probably a perfect opportunity to cut some financial corners. However, when it comes to your brand identity, quality should never be jeopardized. Whether it is a video used for training or recruitment, or an internal announcement for a new product launch, it’s essential to make the investment in acquiring the best footage…and creating a high quality video worthy of your brand.

Just think about how important this difference can be in an application like a training video series, where information retention is critical. This is certainly not the time for bland content and less-than-impressive audio and visuals. Working with an agency will certainly give you access to professional audio and visuals. But more than that, an agency can give you a professional, objective and strategic assessment of your content, messaging and visual cohesion. Finally, an agency can also help you develop processes for measuring results to gauge the effectiveness of your video.

I do believe there is a place for the “YouTube-like” videos in businesses. You are already seeing many businesses looking to this format to market themselves. Understand that creating effective viral video and using it in your marketing plan is still not a job for the inexperienced. Agencies around the world are becoming masters at how to do this effectively, and unless you have this kind of experience in-house, you will likely be much more pleased with the results by allowing an agency the opportunity to elevate your brand. Besides, I’m sure the interns you were going to use to create your video will be more than happy to carry your golf bag for you and shave strokes off your scorecard. Hit ‘em straight.

Eric Pound

As an Executive Producer, Eric is responsible for the direction and development of StudioNorth’s audio and video solutions. With experience ranging from news broadcasting to national advertising, Eric brings the ability to deliver high-end media experiences with the urgency and attention to detail that clients demand. In addition to broadcast work, Eric also has credits in several documentaries and award-winning short films. Since joining the StudioNorth team in 2005, Eric has played a leading role in understanding current and developing trends in viral marketing, social networking and user-created content, and how they impact B2B marketing initiatives.

<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" historyManagementEnabled="true"/>

However I don’t personally think this is the best way to do it. It works OK when you are just using the standard Flex components that come with the SDK. Typically though the Internet applications that we build at StudioNorth are super customized and the built in history management just flat out doesn’t work.

I prefer to build it in manually instead. It’s actually pretty easy. You really only need one class and a few events. Using the example below adds a hash mark to the url and a string fragment. It’s that string fragment that we use to do our deep linking. So say http://www.studionorth.com/#home we know is the homepage, and http://www.studionorth.com/#brand_calculator is the Brand Calculator page. When a user changes to a new page, we change the string fragment programmatically so if the user want to bookmark it or copy it and send to a friend they can. One more note, we always try to make them as friendly as possible. A url should be nice and readable.

Here a little sample app stub to get you started. If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment.

<mx:Application
 backgroundColor="#212930"
 pageTitle="{siteTitle}"
 xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml"
 initialize="init()"
 applicationComplete="onApplicationComplete()"
 historyManagementEnabled="false">

<mx:Script>
<![CDATA[

 // these are the imports we need to get a look into the current url
 // don't forget that these use the javascript routines included in the Flex Builder 3 html templates
 // they won't work if you don't include those javascripts stuffs
 import mx.managers.IBrowserManager;
 import mx.managers.BrowserManager;

 // a string to hold the current title of the page
 // especially useful for users when bookmarking.
 private var siteTitle:String = "";

 // the object we will use to get and set the "friendly" url
 private var browserManager:IBrowserManager;

 // first initialize the BrowserManager to tie Flex into the browser
 private function init():void {
  browserManager = BrowserManager.getInstance();
  browserManager.addEventListener(BrowserChangeEvent.BROWSER_URL_CHANGE, browserUrlChange);
  // set the site title to something initially here if you'd like
  browserManager.init("", siteTitle);
 }

 // here we are checking to see where folks are trying to go when they first hit the website / webapp.
 private function onApplicationComplete():void {
  if(browserManager.fragment.length>0) {
   // hey someone is trying to deep link right away!
   // this could be from a bookmark, a direct link, etc.
   // read the browserManager.fragment and send them where they want to go
   // say something like - setInitialPage(browserManager.fragment); maybe?
  } else {
   // nothing special, let's just show them the homepage and indicate that's what we are doing on the url
   browserManager.setFragment("home");
  }
 }

 // the is the guy that gets called when the url changes, tells us that someone is trying to get somewhere manually via the url
 private function browserUrlChange(event:BrowserChangeEvent):void {
  Alert.show(browserManager.fragment);
  if(browserManager.fragment.length == 0) {return;} // nothing really happened that we care about so leave
   // something on the url changed that we care about, let's
   // do something with browserManager.fragment here
   // maybe navigate to a new section or page or unload / load a different part of the application
   // once you do it, don't forget to do browserManager.setFragment("THE_NEW_SECTION");
   // you should also change the site title to match the section / page - browserManager.setTitle(siteTitle+" - "+section);
 }

]]>
</mx:Script>

</mx:Application>

One thing that I eluded to a few times was the site title. Don’t forget that you should update it when you update the url fragment. I’d doesn’t do anyone any good to look at their browser history on your site and just see the same page title over and over again.

Andy leads the interactive offerings and staff engineers at StudioNorth. He consults with clients on strategic technology direction and personally oversees the key phases of the iterative development cycle for many large technology projects. Whether for public web sites, private extranets, or custom applications, Andy uses his rich experience to provide results-driven solutions to our clients. He’s known for being a visionary and for coining the phrase, “conservative wow” in reference to StudioNorth’s ability to create high-impact projects for some of our more conventional audiences. If you want to bring your brand beyond “2.0″, Andy is your connection.

Want to track Andy a little closer? You can follow him on Twitter.

Web distribution of video is certainly nothing new. For as long as I’ve had an email account, people have been forwarding me videos that I, in turn, share with others. The creation of sites like YouTube didn’t introduce us to web video, it simply relocated it. Now almost anybody — from major studios looking to repurpose their content, amateur filmmakers looking to be discovered, or teenagers with a camera phone recording their friend playing Guitar Hero — has the opportunity to not only distribute their content, but to receive feedback through metrics, user ratings and viewer comments. But even access that’s this easy to come by hasn’t drastically altered viewer behavior and media consumption. People have always talked about television shows, commercials, and movies around the office water cooler, only now they sit at their desks and post their thoughts in the comments section under the video they just watched online.

So why “snacking”? Snacking is a term that is being used to refer to the consumption of media in small snippets. Instead of people sitting down for an hour or two at a time to watch television, they are turning on their computers and watching 4 minutes of online video, jumping over to read a different blog, watching another 5 minutes of online video, finding a link to a similar 3-minute video and watching that one as well. Thus, the snack session goes throughout the day. People still sit down at the media dinner table to enjoy the latest episode of Lost, but the trend is beginning to show that people are becoming much more likely to dip into the cookie jar instead.

A recent survey from IDC found that people spend an average of 33 hours each week online — roughly twice as much time as they spend watching TV (about 16 ½ hours). ComScore recently found that about half of all online video is being viewed between 7 am and 5 pm on weekdays. So, how would the average person have time to spend 33 hours each week online and account for half of their online video consumption? That’s right — at the office.

This is where content creators and B2B marketing have the opportunity to join forces. The advertising and consumer sides of marketing have been setting out an online video buffet for a couple of years now, either in branding user-generated content (Stride gum) or creating their own form of branded entertainment (Anheuser-Busch). With so many people logging on looking for “safe for work” content, and marketing firms looking to reach an audience at work with their messages, the table may have been set for a new menu of B2B marketing initiatives.

Eric Pound

As an Executive Producer, Eric is responsible for the direction and development of StudioNorth’s audio and video solutions. With experience ranging from news broadcasting to national advertising, Eric brings the ability to deliver high-end media experiences with the urgency and attention to detail that clients demand. In addition to broadcast work, Eric also has credits in several documentaries and award-winning short films. Since joining the StudioNorth team in 2005, Eric has played a leading role in understanding current and developing trends in viral marketing, social networking and user-created content, and how they impact B2B marketing initiatives.

It is critical for us and our clients to budget for SEO in the design process. It is an essential marketing strategy that yields highly targeted visitors, good conversion rates, and a good return on investment (ROI) for our clients.

Sites designed with heavy graphics, frames, Flash, dynamic databases, or other embeds that are not HTML based require specific optimization techniques for proper indexing by major search engines. Though we consult with external resources for specialized SEO expertise, we follow the below established best practices internally as we develop our clients’ web sites.

There are a number of techniques in our toolkit to ensure our clients’ web sites are fully indexed and well positioned in major search engines. While SEO techniques change constantly, the following are essential today for superior positioning.

• Domain Name Selection
• Web Site Copywriting
• Meta Tags (Title, Description, Keywords, Heading, Alt Tags)
• Hypertext Links and Site Map
• Directory and File Name Structures
• Spider Analysis
• Robots Exclusion File
• Content Tagging & Categorization

Domain Name Selection

Domain name (URL) can be a key factor in both search engine and directory positioning. StudioNorth conducts research on networksolutions.com to assure URL availability when requested. We also consult the uspto.gov TESS trademark availability web site for potential trademark conflict with URL selection.

Web Site Copywriting

Web page copy is of major importance for search engines, directories, and customers. Search robots require machine-readable content (plain text) in web pages and HTML tags to index the site. Directory editors decide whether or not to list a site based on unique and relevant content. Since consumers make buying decisions primarily based on savvy marketing copy, brand, and look and feel, a skilled balance of human allure and bot-baited style is required. Our priorities are: we write for people first and search engines a close second.

We analyze recent keyword traffic on major search engines to determine a starting point for integrating key words in copy. Our copywriters then keep an eye toward liberal use of these keywords in their writing. Text near the top of the page is important to search spiders, as are keywords at the beginning of paragraphs and in headings. We write text first then create meta tags relevant to specific page content.

Meta Tags

Though we place less emphasis on meta tags due to their abuse and subsequent irrelevance, as a minimum practice we include title, description, keywords, heading, and alternate tags in the head section of all indexable pages. All meta tags should be unique and apply to a specific page. The following best practices apply to StudioNorth meta tag techniques:

• Title Tag — Use 5-10 words to write a keyword-rich title that’s relevant to the page. Begin with keywords, using sentence case. Most search engines use this copy as the link to pages in search results.
• Description Tag — Very important because these are often used by search engines as a web site description in search results. Use 15-20 words (170 characters), starting with several strategic keywords. Make it compelling and relevant to receive qualified traffic.
• Meta Keywords Tag –List strategic keyword phrases up to a maximum of 744 characters. Use keywords that are relevant to the page, with or without commas.
• Heading Tags — Place these tags at the top of pages, using strategic keywords relevant to the page.
• Alt Tags — Also called image tags as they contain the text that appears in roll-over of an image. Use keywords to describe the image appropriately.

Links and Site Map

We always ensure that search spiders have plenty of basic links to follow. Search engine spiders will index the text on your homepage, then attempt to follow links from there to other pages in the site.

• Most search engines can’t follow dynamic links (question mark in URL), so basic links or image maps must be provided.
• The text in links is important and should include keywords related to the page it’s linking to.
• A site map is an excellent way to provide links for search spiders.

Ideally, hypertext links should have a keyword in the link text or in an .alt description of the image or area tag.

A well-structured site map makes it easier for search spiders to find all web pages in the site. The site map is also very useful for site visitors to navigate against their immediate needs. Be sure to provide one or more links to the site map from the home page.

• Place a text link to the site map at the bottom of the page titled “Site Map”
• Include strategic keywords in the link text link.
• Create a static list of links to all your pages, with a link to this page from your homepage or site map.

Directory and File Name Structure

Because many engines and directories index file names and even directory names, it pays to create these using keywords whenever possible. Use at least one keyword phrase in the file/directory names, preferably at the beginning. Don’t stuff keywords and keep the names relevant. Use hyphens or underscores to separate the words in the file and directory names.

Spider Analysis

Spider Analysis can provide a record of spider activity in its effort to index pages upon entering the site. It shows whether or not the site has been crawled, by which search engine(s), on which pages, and on what dates. Spider Analysis reveals which pages are considered more relevant and which should be re-optimized and re-submitted. It also can identify and eliminate harmful spiders like email-harvesting robots. We rely on our SEO consultant partners to offer spider analysis services.

Robots Exclusion File

It’s important to have a robots.txt file present in the root directory because some search spiders will not crawl a site if they don’t find this file.

-Greg French

Greg has logged more than 27 years as a practitioner and published author in marketing, branding, and communications. His primary mission is to help StudioNorth clients make their marketing programs more effective by identifying and addressing value gaps. With this perspective, Greg helps our clients synthesize new brand marketing solutions to fill these value gaps and deliver real, measurable business results. Greg’s credits include award-winning white papers entitled, “The Role of Electronic Publishing Technology in Business-to-Business Marketing Communications” (McGraw-Hill), and “Wi-Fi for All” (International Engineering Consortium’s Annual Review of Communications). He was also a finalist in the Silver Microphone awards for creative direction on an Ameritech Mobile radio spot series.

But since 2001, the Studio has evolved, undergoing many technical changes that naturally led the testing environment to change as well.

Our first endeavor was creating a content management system that gave our clients the ability to add, edit and delete content on their own web pages. This step had extensive implications for back-end administration as it required resources to manage security, user accounts, pages, and some file pooling for sharing between the document management system (DMS) and the CMS.

As the CMS application expanded and changed, the test plan evolved as well. To accommodate, we created a generic test plan that could be applied to all clients that used the CMS. This helped with regression testing and ensured that an update in one area did not impact the application in another area.

The next Studio enhancement was the added emphasis on Flash programming. Initially, we included a .swf file in the HTML that would be isolated on a page and usually involved some slick animation that caught the user’s eyes. In order to sustain this, the testing department needed to become familiar with all aspects of Flash, including its different versions and the effects of uninstalling it in browsers that did not already have the application. Sometimes, corporations keep tight control over what version of Flash resides on the desktop. At SN, we’re prepared with contingencies because, as always, our goal is to maintain a seamless experience for all types of users, from the savvy guy running the application on Vista/IE7 to the one running Windows 98 on an IE 5.5 browser.

Over the course of seven years, perhaps the greatest challenges in our evolution have been learning from our mistakes and being able to anticipate the unexpected. For example, there will be times when a user leaves a field blank and hits the enter key. In order to prevent a system error from popping up on the screen because the programmer and tester did not anticipate that a null value would be entered, we’ve learned to test what is inputted as well as what is omitted. We’ve also learned that some users like to “test” the integrity of the system by inputting as many characters as the field allows. Thanks to this caveat, all of SN’s newbies know that “maxlengths” are a programmer’s best friend.

Java came with its own set of challenges — beginning with apostrophes that translated into question marks and limitless integer fields. Now, all input fields are routinely tested for “weird characters” and extremely large, zero and negative values to ensure that if the user does enter these into the system, the system will be able to handle it gracefully. For added security, we’ve adapted our thinking to match the naive user and the hard-core hacker. Whether a user enters the system via the login screen or tries to enter by hard-coding the security link into the URL, our job is to guarantee that the system will be safeguarded against innocent and malicious alike.

As we learn to master the defects and accept the enhancements to our department, we also like to celebrate our accomplishments here at the Studio. One of our biggest pats on the back came when we developed our proprietary Defect Tracking System. This SQL back-end web application offers the QA department and developers a chance to collaborate on projects and track the issues on a per-project basis. Because projects are not deemed ready to go live until all issues are resolved, this systems helps ensure that problems are not forgotten or lost in the shuffle.

In the growth process, we not only learn from our mistakes, but we take recommendations from our most important critics — our clients. We enjoyed a great leap in quality when we took the recommendation of a client to put our system under a “stress test” to ensure that it would operate smoothly with 100 users hitting it at the same time. Since we don’t even have 100 computers here at the Studio, we had to look into a stress tool that could simulate 100 users accessing the system. After researching other tools on the market, we opted for an open source application to run our test against. This tool gives us the unique ability to go into the code and make the necessary adjustments in order to simulate 100 different users logging into the system via a login screen. Most stress tools do not allow for such adjustments; rather, all 100 simulated users would be using the same login — which of course would not be a true test of the system’s capabilities.

We were able to run the tests after business hours and report on the number of errors encountered, the server thresholds, and the number of requests processed in a second. Once our client saw the reports, they were more than satisfied that their application would run without incident. We’re thrilled to report that it did, in fact, run flawlessly when the application opened to audiences a week later.

Going forward, QA is looking for ways to improve the productivity and accuracy of all of the applications we develop. With Andy at the helm pushing our developers to be on the cutting edge of technology, it’s never boring or stagnant in our area. We realize that when collaboration happens between departments, the needs of the client are better met and managed — that’s what makes StudioNorth an integrated brand communications agency. Currently, we are reviewing a new online defect tracking/project management tool that will allow us to align projects with any issues associated with the program. Because it’s accessible at the project management level, the application will be open to viewing and editing by both our Client Services and Interactive departments.

We’re also looking into automated testing tools to aid us with regression testing. Regression testing involves testing the application to make sure that what was working before is still working after the updates are applied. Regression testing tools save time and money, and ensure that the application behaves as expected.

To ensure that our evolution continues, we make it a priority to be up to date on the latest technologies, hot trends and current forecasts. We receive QA feeds in our email accounts on a daily basis, order books and videos, and attend training classes to make us the best testers that we can possibly be.

Laura Zavala

Laura leads the quality assurance team in the testing of applications at StudioNorth. Before any program is released, she subjects all applications to rigorous testing in such areas as browser compatibility, operating systems, business rules and requirements, stress testing (performance), link checking, and overall usability. Laura has been with the Studio since 2001. With more than 15 years of experience in programming and project management, she is well versed in testing methodologies as they relate to Web, Flash, desktop, and extranet applications.

“Cloud Computing”

More and more services online are competing for our lives. They are asking us to invite our friends, store our documents, entertain us, and streamline our lives. What’s more they aren’t just asking to do it, they’re actually making our lives better, providing a return on our “investment of information.” I can say without a doubt that online services make my life easier and more convenient. On the flip side, they also add clutter. However, once you figure out how you work best online it becomes somewhat easy to cut out the clutter and actually simplify things.

Think about these services for a moment… How many of them have you had to install on your computer? How many of them are available offline? Hardly any. They only exist or make themselves available when you are connected to the Internet and because of this you are drawn into the Internet more and more.

The future of marketing, software, services, and products

This is where it gets interesting. Many of the leaders of these services are developing vast data centers using cheap hardware on cheap or free operating systems. Companies like Google, Yahoo!, IBM and Microsoft are moving very quickly to create the facilities to enable and store the services and data that allow people to function in the cloud. Because of this, the ability to find computing power and data storage online is becoming extremely cheap and ubiquitous. It’s actually becoming very much like a utility for companies that take advantage of these data centers in the cloud. Amazon, for instance, has two offerings in particular that they call the Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Simple Storage Service (S3). These can be used by software engineers and .com start-ups to host virtually unlimited amounts of data and virtual computing power. They can turn them off and on as needed and only pay for what is used…and it literally costs just pennies.

As these services become better and more available people are flocking to use them. Companies like MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube have attracted people in droves, and keep them engaged. That means that more marketing and advertising dollars must follow. We are only beginning to see what context-based and pay-per-transaction advertising will become. The media game is changing and it will be interesting to see how media buying and selling changes with it. There is tremendous opportunity within this transformation to change the old crusty advertising industry.

How StudioNorth is taking advantage of “The Cloud”

At StudioNorth we are very highly aware of how to use the cloud to help our clients. We use it to host high traffic/high bandwidth “components” of websites. Components like videos that are attached to direct marketing campaigns. We are also using the cloud to create the future of our agency service offerings. It’s very cost effective for us and highly scalable. We’ve always been a custom online software application agency, but now we are able to offer much more. Automating and moving some of our core processes into the cloud to achieve usage and reach audience we’ve never thought possible before is very exciting and rewarding.

So…

As Sun Microsystems used to say back in the 1990′s, “The Network is the Computer.” It wasn’t then, but it is fast becoming true today (too bad Google and Adobe are eating Sun’s lunch). Only the future will show for sure how far the cloud boundary will permeate our lives. And once it has, what’s next?

-Andy

Some references for more info.
Wikipedia: Cloud Computing
Advertising Age: What Cloud Means to Marketing Forecast
O’Reilly: The Network REALLY is The Computer

Andy leads the interactive offerings and staff engineers at StudioNorth. He consults with clients on strategic technology direction and personally oversees the key phases of the iterative development cycle for many large technology projects. Whether for public web sites, private extranets, or custom applications, Andy uses his rich experience to provide results-driven solutions to our clients. He’s known for being a visionary and for coining the phrase, “conservative wow” in reference to StudioNorth’s ability to create high-impact projects for some of our more conventional audiences. If you want to bring your brand beyond “2.0″, Andy is your connection.

Want to track Andy a little closer? You can follow him on Twitter.