House cleaning. We hate it. Most of us do what we need to get by. Wipe down critical areas like kitchens and baths, sweep when the dust-bunnies roll, and wipe down shelves when they can no longer be ignored! But windows? Carpets? Blech! Is Your Website Ready for Company? When did you last spruce up [...]

Just launched my latest project. This was a redesign of 2-page realtor site. At first glance, the project was simple enough: 2 static pages with clean new look, better content organization and access to FranklyMLS, blog & videos. This site was to be tighter and more ‘businesslike’ than the client’s blog I redesigned last year. The only [...]

Yesterday the world lost Michele. I weep. Not because she and I were close friends. I barely knew her. I weep because I understand. I’ve been there, more or less, on both sides of cancer. We met, a dozen or so years ago, when our sons started soccer. Nothing memorable, just parents showing up at [...]

Hello! If you’ve arrived directly here, you may not have noticed some major changes in the home page. Go ahead, visit Azzcat Design. I’ll wait!… Woa! What was that movin’ and a changin’ going on? Did you play with it? Don’t forget to resize the browser to enjoy the effects Pretty nifty, huh? Kind of makes this [...]

Graphic designers—especially those who design websites and do front-end development—spend large blocks of time in front of computer monitors. My average is 8-10 hours/day. Eyestrain is a fact of life. Lubricating eyedrops help. Rx eyedrops help. Breaks help. But at the end of the day—every day—my eyes are tired and scratchy and red. I wear [...]

A couple weeks ago it was time to gear up for a recurring print project. Client sends me content (copy & photos) and I get to work. It’s a 2C job (black + spot) web printed on 70% PCW paper. The spot color changes with every issue. This time client suggested “a nice shade of [...]

I find myself explaining the process of website design & development repeatedly, so it’s time to write a show-and-tell post. First off, let me say that this is my process. Other designers & developers may differ somewhat, especially if they work within larger team environments. Yet, every site does go through a similar creative to [...]

I’ve just read an interesting article about women in web design. And I’m stunned. It’s been 22 years since my (female) manager was ‘demoted’ to non-manager following the birth of her child, because she needed to reduce her hours to 40/week. It’s been 33 years since my summer job at a state law enforcement agency—where [...]

This week, I’ve written my first guest post, Freelancing—Dream or Reality? for the new blog Freelance & Create. My post covers the differences between my youthful vision of freelancing and the reality today. As a companion read, I highly recommend reading Manda’s full post, 10 reasons Freelance Designers Get Screwed. Below is an excerpt. I [...]

Fair warning…RANT! elements ahead… Years ago, I wrote a high school paper on the Meat Boycott. My take-away lesson? That the individual consumer has economic power, which is wielded with the vote—or not—of consumer’s wallet. In other words, if you don’t like a company’s service, product, ethos…whatever…as a consumer, you have the power to vote [...]

I had the pleasure of spending several hours today with my family (each on separate computers) doing a search for college scholarship and grant monies for our two oldest children. One of the things that totally frustrated and annoyed me was the complete omission of certain web usability features that would make the funding search [...]

W3C Validators We know about the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Validation Service. Submit a site’s URL and get graded on valid HTML and/or CSS mark-up: pass, and you get to put a W3C validation banner on the site. (Not dissimilar to gold star stickers on a kindergartener’s bumblebee.) fail, and you get not only [...]

It’s been a long day, but I feel the need to share. Today started early (7:30 am) when—after making lunches for the kids and sending them to school—I sat down w/coffee and email. Designer/IT Help Desk One of my Eastern time clients (I’m Pacific) was having trouble accessing his webmail (day 2). The day before, I [...]

If you’re a web designer, and in particular, a print designer who has migrated to web design, you’re likely any or all of the following: accustomed to selecting & purchasing fonts based on client branding and application needs experienced with legally including/embedding necessary fonts with print-ready files to send to printer, sign fabricator, etc. sick [...]

I became a ‘Tweeter’ in 2009. Most of my contemporaries think I’m crazy. Mind you, we’ve all got kids who used MySpace, Facebook, etc. Text messaging is rampant and our kids are endlessly amused by their elders’ attempts at speedy texting. (Though I’ve greatly improved with my new QWERTY keyboard!) I understand. All that ‘friending’ [...]