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Windows 10. Should you Upgrade?

Posted on August 7th, 2015 by Rick Waters

For those of you that have been living under a rock, (or prefer Macs) Windows just released a pretty interesting upgrade to it’s OS. Windows 10 brings back some very missed features and also addresses some issues in previous versions. But, is it worth the upgrade?

The Start Menu

This is the big one, folks. A lot of people complained about the lack of a start menu in Windows 8. The start screen was pretty great for touch-screen devices, but it left desktop users feeling like they were missing out. It just never made sense when using a mouse and keyboard. With Windows 10, the start menu is back, with a slue of new features. It incorporates the tiles from the start screen, adds Cortana (Microsoft’s Siri), and a whole bunch of other things that are supposed to make your life easier and this OS more efficient.

Tablet Mode

For those of you with those fancy Surfaces, you can switch from the desktop mode, with the start menu, to the tablet mode, which makes the tiles act more like they do on Windows 8. Both modes actually work pretty well on tablets, in case you miss your start menu that much. For the most part, hybrids (tablet/keyboards) benefit more than pure tablets with a Windows 10 upgrade.

Classic vs Universal Apps

Windows store apps can now be run in windowed mode, making them easier to incorporate into your regular working life. This was no the case in Windows 8, where they were all full screen.

Skype has already confirmed that it will be ditching its full-screen Windows 8 application to make its desktop version with the new switchable full screen/desktop modes of Windows 10.

Windows 10 will be able to run all touch-friendly apps created for Windows 8, but it will be better for desktop apps as well.

Virtual Desktop

For those of you who love working on or wish they had them, there is virtual desktop. It allows users to spread their windows across multiple different workplaces. It’s really helpful if you work with many applications at once, and have limited screen space. It remainds me a lot of Apples OS X version, which isn’t a bad thing. I love using that!

Cortana

Microsoft’s Siri rival is now available built in to Windows 10. Cortana is the powerful search and personal assistant that Microsoft first introduced on it’s phones. You can use Cortana to search your PC for files and apps and launch searches. It also tracks your interests and monitors things like your calendar and places you visited. With all this information, it can provide useful stuff like weather reports, meeting alerts and directions to where you need to go.

Action Center

This one is taken right of of OS X, but it’s still lovely. This central notifications area will alert you for new emails, Windows updates, messages and even security flaws, just like it would on your phone. Sure it’s worked on phones for years, but this feature will make all the info Windows throws at you compiled in a very useful, out of the way, area.

Should You Upgrade?

Look, it’s no secret that I’m not a huge fan of Microsoft. I don’t try to deny it, and I welcome anyone who wishes to message me with their opinions on that; I love a good argument! That being said, after looking through Windows 10, I have to say, I’m impressed! Microsoft is a slow learner, but it looks like it is finally adding some much needed features to fix the problems with previous versions of Windows. I know many people who refused to update their Windows from, 7 to 8, because of these missing features. But, just like Windows 7 was a better, more fleshed out version, of Windows Vista, I think Windows 10 is what Windows 8 should have been.

If you are running any version of Windows 7 and newer, I think it’s a good idea to upgrade. There will be some noticeable speed difference between 10 and 7, and you’ll get the good old start menu if you upgrade from 8 to 10 (where is 9?). Bottom line: Do it!

Which Internet Browser Should You Be Using?

Posted on July 21st, 2015 by Rick Waters

I’m surprised I haven’t tackled this subject before. I mean your internet browser dictates how your going to experience websites, social media and almost your entire online world. Surely, you want the best online experience, right? Each browser has its pros and cons, but the truth is that there are some browsers that are amazing and others that aren’t worth your time.

Mozilla Firefox

One of my all time favorite browsers! I love Firefox, and so do many of you. It is one of the top 3 most popular browsers currently used, second only to Chrome in usage as of June 2015. Firefox has a crisp clean design, is relatively fast, loads pretty much all kinds of web pages and has some pretty nifty add-ons and security features (I’m talking to you AdBlock).

Google Chrome

This is my go to browser, and also most other people’s. It is the most popular browser, by far, and for many reasons. It is sleek, fast, it syncs well with mobile devices and it also has some impressive add-ons. I really have nothing bad to say about Chrome, except from a back-end standpoint. Due to its overwhelming popularity, it is really important that your websites look good on Chrome, and sometimes that can be tricky. I can’t tell you how many times something looked perfect on Firefox but then when I went over to Chrome, something was off. It’s not a difficult fix behind the scenes, but it is something to watch out for.

Microsoft Internet Explorer

This is going to sound harsh, but I hate IE. I always have and I always will. It is the perfect example of a browser that just doesn’t get it. Unfortunately, it is in the top 3 so that means either some of you like it or you started using it when you booted up your Windows PC, and didn’t know there were better alternatives out there. In all fairness, IE is getting better, but it is still nowhere near as good as Chrome or Firefox, in my opinion. Also, IE doesn’t work on macs, which is not necessarily a bad thing 🙂

Be on the lookout for Microsoft Edge, the new Windows replacement browser for IE. I guess even Microsoft is fed up with all the hate coming their way.

Apple Safari

Safari is an interesting one. It’s not really bad, but it also isn’t that great. It comes standard with all Apple computers and mobile devices, so many of you are “forced” to use it. It has ok speeds and features and also plays well with other devices in Apple’s world. I don’t hate it like I do IE, but I prefer using either Firefox or Chrome in the end.

I will note that the gesture features of Safari for Mac and iOS users is pretty impressive, and that is one reason to stick with Safari. The other reason is that Apple sort of makes you use it on its mobile devices. Sure, you can download a Chrome browser in the app store, but it doesn’t work as well with Siri and the like.

Opera

I like to think of Opera as a worthy underdog. I’ve been playing around with it this morning, and I have to say I’m really impressed, so far. It has really great speeds, a couple of nice add-ons and I have to say it is the most aesthetically pleasing of all the browsers on this list. You can download a mobile browser on both iOS and Android, so there’s that.

The problem with Opera is that it has to play in the same ballpark as Chrome and Firefox. It can’t compete in the cloud like Chrome does, and it lacks the robustness that is Firefox.

I will be keeping tabs on Opera because it really did impress me. But for now, I’m sticking to Chrome (and sometimes Firefox).

I think it’s pretty clear that you should either be using Chrome or Firefox. Both are great browsers that put all the other ones on this list to shame. If you are trapped in Apple’s walled garden (I say this while typing on my MacBook Pro), feel free to use Safari. But never, ever ever ever ever stick with Internet Explorer, or I will cut all ties with you.

Oh, and Opera? Keep up the good work. It’s a tough world out there little buddy 🙂

Is Design Really That Important?

Posted on June 24th, 2015 by Rick Waters

Graphic Design is an interesting profession. It falls somewhere between professional photography and artist for hire when it comes to how people view its necessity. Sure, if zombies were to attack this world, and we were forced to live together in small communities, I highly doubt a graphic designer would be the one to step up and lead us to victory over the undead hordes. That role usually goes to the doctors and politicians, and so on. But we’re not living in a post-apocalyptic world. We live in our world, which is filled with beautiful things, whether made naturally or by the creative eye of someone with a design background.

But, the argument here isn’t whether or not design is great (and pretty to look at), rather if it’s necessary. Can a business survive with minimal design effort? In this day and age, with thousands of startups launching every day, are new and old businesses able to keep up without constantly updating their look to match modern design standards?

The answer is…yes!

As the person in charge of design and creativity at PNT, you would think I would use an article like this to sell my skills and why you should be using us for your next website upgrade. I’m sure someone out there is scratching their heads right now. I’ll say it again, “it’s not necessary to have good design in order to be a successful business this day and age.”

Am I saying you should ditch design all together? No! Just make sure you’re aware of the fact that without a stellar product or service, it really doesn’t matter what your brand looks like. You cannot afford to have bad customer service, or a slow shipping product, etc. With the power of social media and the likelihood that someone will post a bad experience to Facebook and Twitter, lock down your services before you throw your entire budget into making your image beautiful.

My example for today’s “argument” is Masseria Cisternella, a bed and breakfast located near Lecce, Italy. I came across their site today and was immediately drawn in by how clean and charming it was. This, of course goes against everything I just said. A pretty site drew me in, hmmm. So for argument’s sake, I did some poking around. They have excellent reviews on sites like Trip Advisor and Booking.com. All in all, they’ve got it together. Not only is their social image doing well, but I’m sure their aesthetically pleasing site isn’t turning anyone away from possibly booking a stay with them. The bottom line is, if Masseria Cisternella had horrible ratings, it really wouldn’t matter how pleasing their website looked. Sure, it might catch a few people off guard, but eventually, word would get out that this place is deceiving, and they would notice their attendance drop. Whether or not Masseria chose to have a pretty site before they secured their business is not certain, but seeing as these villas were converted from ancient farmhouses, at least the foundation was there!

Check out the site at: http://www.masseriacisternella.it/

Get your brand in order. That’s the goal of today’s write-up. Make sure things are running smoothly before you invest too much time and money in making it look pretty. And, never, NEVER, use nice design elements to mask a poorly executed product. That’s the easy way out, and just plain sleazy!

I would love to have a discussion on this, so feel free to post a comment below. Let’s get a debate going! How important is design to you, to your business, and to where you spend your hard earned money?

What Makes a Great Logo?

Posted on June 11th, 2015 by Rick Waters

Graphic Design is an interesting profession. Along with the likes of Photography and Interior Design, a lot of people think it’s not a necessary expense. Why pay someone to do something you could probably do yourself or get done for free? I just hit the BUZZER really hard there. Wrong! Any form of artistic profession should be treated as such — a profession. I find that a lot of my clients tried going at it by themselves, and then realized that proper design was way out of their element. Or, worse, they tried and thought they succeeded.

In this article, I want to talk about logos, the anchor of your brand, and what makes a great one. You may have tried designing your own, or you even got some kid fresh out of college to do it for pennies. But, if it doesn’t follow these steps, it’s just not going to cut it in today’s competitive business world.

#1 Make it Unique

The Golden Arches of McDonalds, the mermaid of Starbucks and the Nike swoosh. What do they all have in common? They have extremely recognizable logos that separate them from their peers/competitors. Is it any wonder they are some of the most successful brands out there?

When designing a new brand’s logo, I look at several key factors: who is their demographic? What do other logos in their field look like? How can I make their logo stand out and separate them from their competitors? I, of course have a biased opinion, but when I look at a brand and see a well thought out logo centered around it, I immediately gain a higher level of respect for them and their product/service. Just because you own a coffee shop, doesn’t mean your logo needs to have coffee beans in it. That’s been done more times than too many. Try something new and fresh! Or better yet, let me! 🙂

#2 Make it Adaptable

So you’ve finished your masterpiece; the logo for your company is looking amazing (you really think so?), what’s next? Do you want to put it on a banner, do you want to wrap a vehicle in it? How about buttons or business cards? Uh Oh! That really “amazing” logo you just completed looks terrible at smaller sizes. Why didn’t anyone tell me this!? I’m speaking as you or someone you know that made a boo-boo such as this.

Simplicity is key here. If your logo looks great blown up on your computer screen, you have to make sure it also works on something as small as a business card. Nothing hurts more than realizing you’ve wasted a lot of time on a design and find out it’s not adaptable.

#3 Make it Timeless

Milton Glaser created the “I Love New York” logo in 1975. Thirty-six years later, you can still see his logo on shirts and other items at almost every gift shop in NYC. A successful logo needs to transcend the decade it was created. Keeping it simple and clean are great ways to make sure your brand look will stay fresh throughout the years.

#4 Make it Make Sense

If I’m designing a logo for a kids fun zone or theme park, I’m not going to grab ideas from a law firm design I just completed. The two don’t work together. A good logo takes into consideration the field it is in and the demographic it is targeting. Colors are really important as well. Certain colors mean certain things in certain cultures. This is where market research comes in. The last thing you want to do is give a bull wrangler a red logo, if you know what I mean.

Unless people suddenly develop distaste for hamburgers and coffee, I imagine McDonald’s and Starbucks aren’t going anywhere any time soon. It’s going to be very interesting to see how their logos adapt to the coming years. In the meantime, the questions you should be asking are, “does my brand logo fit within these requirements?” If not, how can we fix that?

What is Play Nice Together?

Posted on May 5th, 2015 by Rick Waters

The Start of Something Beautiful – What is Play Nice Together?

I bet some of you are very confused right about now. You’ve either come across this page because we told you to through various social media outlets, or you came across it hoping to meet the stellar folks behind The Branding Buzz. Rest assured, you’ve come to the right place!

Play Nice Together is the new and improved TBB. Let’s call it TBB 2.0 or PNT 1.0! For some time now, Ryan and I have been building brands for businesses both local and abroad. Whether it was a newly-formed entity or someone looking to refresh their look, we were always up to the task of making their digital hub better, both for them and for their customers/clients. In fact, we got so good at making other brands better, we completely ignored our own!

From the moment I came on board, I told Ryan that the name, The Branding Buzz, just didn’t fit with our overall goals. There is nothing wrong with the name itself; it just didn’t work for us. Since then, we have been going back and forth on how to approach rebranding our vision. After several close calls including such possible winners as “Blueberry Branding,” “Adding Padding” (I still like this one but it was confusing to passersby), “Watercolor Webworks,” and “Create Lemonade,” we finally found a name and look that would fit with two man-children who not only enjoy making people’s digital worlds better, but are not above watching video bloopers on Youtube. Play Nice Together was born on a cold winter morning when it seemed all hope was lost to come up with something we both felt worked. It finally happened, and I’m still pinching myself.

I immediately got to work on creating our complete look! The concept of PNT is to create amazing ideas that allow brands to work well together internally and externally, with a consistent look and feel throughout. This brought me back to my childhood, where I used to sit around with my brother and play with our toys (action figures we insisted on calling them). No matter how many times we got each other in trouble or screamed at each other, we knew when the toys came out, we would get along and enjoy each other’s company. So, for PNT, I wanted to depict two children getting along and playing dress-up/role-playing. You will see, across the site, that they have access to quite the wardrobe!

At the end of the day, this site is meant to show people that we are fun to work with, we’re good at what we do, and that it’s possible to make your lives easier in the digital world. I hope you enjoy our new and improved website and we look forward to working with you in the near future! Now, back to Youtube!

Don’t put music on your website!

Posted on February 17th, 2015 by Rick Waters

Ok, I should clarify on this one a bit. I mean to say, “don’t have music automatically playing on your site when users arrive”. In this article, I’m going to go over the many reasons not to put music on your site. You would think, this day and age, you could avoid this topic all together. But, you’d be surprised.

Having music automatically play when someone enters your site, to some, is the finishing touch that turns their website into a masterpiece that stands out from the crowd. But this is one of those instances where you have to look at things from the eyes of your customers.

Take advice from the big dogs

When you visit Amazon or Apple’s website, do you hear music playing? What about eBay or Google? No? That’s because these guys did their research and it told them not to play music. I would trust them on this one.

Is your music that good?

Let’s, for a second, imagine you have great taste. And, who knows, maybe you do when it comes to music! There is just no way you are able to please every single person that visits your site with your band choices. No way! A bunch of them are just not going to be into your tunes, and that means lost clients/customers who never even got in through the front door. It’s hard enough getting people to a website, don’t make it harder!

Another scenario is what if they were already listening to music when they got to your site. Now they have to scramble to find the stop button so that your music doesn’t interfere with theirs. Most likely, they’ll opt for the easier way to not hear their music; hitting the back button.

What if they are in public or it’s late?

This is another one of those “lost customer” scenarios. Imagine the person visiting your site is in a public setting, like a library or a cafe. They go to your site, and are immediately forced to backtrack to avoid continued embarrassment. You can be sure they’ll remember your site as the one that made them red in the face.

Same goes for late at night. What if it startles them while they’re browsing in the wee hours of the evening. Same result happens; you lose a visitor, most likely, permanently.

It doesn’t make your website better

First off, have some confidence in your baby! You worked hard to get it where it is. Don’t immediately assume its not good enough without music. If that is your thought process, you need to reevaluate the overall site. Even sites that sell music shouldn’t have it playing automatically. That’s what play buttons are for.

But it’s a music site

Doesn’t matter. As I said before, adding play buttons in there will give the customer the option to play music, not force it down their throat. This should go double for people trying to sell music. Based on all the items I told you about up top, do you want people to associate your music with the reason they left your site?

Vectorlicious

Posted on February 4th, 2015 by Rick Waters

Graphic lingo can sometimes be confusing to a novice. The most common question our clients ask us when its comes time to design their logo is “What is a vector image and what makes it so special?”

Vector images, in short, “are made of mathematical calculations that form objects or lines – they do not use pixels therefore they are resolution-independent.”

“Wow, Rick, I feel even more confused now,” is probably what you’re thinking. Don’t worry, I am here to explain it all. First thing I would like you to do is go to your Facebook page. If you don’t have a Facebook page, go find a random image on the internet. Are you looking at that image? Good, now I want you to start zooming-in on your browser. You can do this by pressing together either Ctrl + on a PC, or Cmd + on a Mac. Notice this the image you are looking at is starting to get fuzzy or blurry. These are known as Raster Files (commonly named JPG, PNG, or GIF)

Every photo on your computer (or smartphone), whether it is offline or on, is created using pixels. These are tiny squares that make up the colors of the image. The higher the resolution, the more pixels there are. Zoom in on any photo on your phone and the same “pixelation” will occur. This is important because Vector graphics use lines rather than pixels. This means that no matter what size we make it, it will stay crisp and clear.

Vector Images (commonly named AI or EPS on your computer) are great for designing logos and any other graphics that involve a heavy use of lines and shapes. They provide a crisp, clean and modern look to your brand that will be easy to resize for any medium. Just remember, like most things involving areas you don’t understand, leave it to the professionals 🙂

To Stock or not to Stock (Photography)

Posted on January 22nd, 2015 by Rick Waters

You’ve built this very slick and functional website (or you were smart and had us do it). Now, it’s time to fill it with content. Along with some excellent copy, you’re going to want to add some type of photos to really breathe some life into your new site.

There are two ways to approach this. You can either provide the photographs yourself, either by picking up a camera or hiring the job out, or you can get some stock photography from the many available sites out there. But which route do you take? Don’t worry, Ricky is here to lend a hand. Here are some reasons to choose and not to choose stock photography over personal photography.

It’s inexpensive

This is one of the many reasons stock photography wins over personal to most people. You only have so much you can spend on your new site, and when you see the price of a couple of stock photos online versus hiring a professional (or buying your own camera), its easy to see why many people choose the former. For a couple of bucks, you can fill up your entire site with colorful and vibrant photos!

It’s impersonal

I’m sure you’ve heard of the saying, “you get what you pay for.” This definitely applies to stock photography versus personal photography. Sure, it’s less expensive, but you also lose some uniqueness when you go the stock route over either taking the photos yourself or hiring someone to do it for you. Stock photos can be used by anyone, which means, at any giving time, the same photos you have filling up your site, can be on someone else’s. Doesn’t that make you feel… dirty?

If you’re looking to establish a small or personal business, it might be worth it to use your own photos. This gives you an identity separate from your competitors and peers. Taking shots of your business and your employees in action might work better for your overall look than finding some random stock images to fill up your pages.

It’s safe

Let’s face it: a lot of us just don’t have the shutterbug. Stock photos offer a wider range of shots that are always done by professionals. So the lighting and the angles will always be good. This may work out better for those of you who want crisp clean images without hiring a professional. Although its commendable to want to do it yourself, sometimes it’s more appropriate to leave things to professionals, or, in this case, a bunch of random professionals you will never meet.

What to choose

Overall, if you have the budget, I would recommend hiring a professional. This will allow you to get the best of both worlds. High-quality AND personal shots are the best thing you can do for your new (or revamped) website. But, if you’re working with limited funds, you need to figure out what is more important to you. Would you rather try to take the photos yourself, and risk exposing your customers to potentially poor, yet unique, images, or would you prefer a stock selection that may or may not come off as fake?

I look forward to seeing what you decide.

The Double-Edged Sword of WordPress

Posted on January 3rd, 2015 by Ryan Smith

WordPress is a great platform for building many different types of web sites. In fact, we use WordPress for our own site and for most of our clients’ sites. WordPress is so popular that many hosting providers have a “one-click install” feature, allowing just about anyone to setup a basic WordPress site in minutes. What’s often not talked about is how equally easy it is for a novice WordPress administrator to get into trouble.

Let’s start by giving an overview of how the WordPress platform is designed. The main WordPress software itself (also called the “WordPress core”) is managed by a small team of developers who follow best practices and coding standards. While anyone can submit contributions to the WordPress core, the changes must be approved by the WordPress development team before they are released to the public. This helps reduce the amount of bad code that is introduced into the software.

In addition to the built-in core functionality, WordPress can be extended or enhanced by using a theme or a plugin. WordPress themes are typically used to change the look and feel of a web site. WordPress plugins are typically used to add functionality to either the WordPress administration interface or the web site itself. Most themes and plugins are not written by the core WordPress developers, so they follow a much less stringent release and review process.

Anyone from around the world can design a plugin or theme and release it for anyone else to use. While many plugins and themes are developed by knowledgeable, experienced developers who write well-constructed code, others are written by people with little or no web site programming or WordPress experience. Inexperienced developers are more likely to have their code subject to Cross-Site Request Forgery, Cross-site Scripting, SQL Injection, and other types of attacks. These are all dangerous vulnerabilities that can lead to your web site being hacked, deleted, or defaced and your customer information being stolen.

Therefore, it is important to follow these tips when setting up your own WordPress installation:

• Even though the core WordPress software is held to a higher standard than themes and plugins are, it can still contain bugs and security vulnerabilities. Always run the latest version of the core WordPress software and check for new updates at least once a week. The latest versions of WordPress will automatically notify you via email when an update is available.
• Choose WordPress themes and plugins that are mature (have been in use for at least a year or more), have wide acceptance (have been downloaded/installed by at least 10,000 people), and are updated on a regular basis (at least once every 3 months). Always run the latest versions of themes and plugins to ensure known bug fixes are in place. There is typically not an email notification setup for theme and plugin updates, so check for updates manually at least once a week.
• Any web site that contains a login area should be secured with an SSL certificate. Even if your public-facing web site doesn’t require usernames and passwords, your WordPress administrator interface does. Without an SSL certificate, your WordPress administrator username, password, cookies, and session tokens are subject to being captured by third parties, especially if you use public wireless networks. We recommend installing an SSL certificate on every new web site you setup. In addition to the security benefits, you may also receive a slight SEO ranking boost.
• Do not use the default username of “admin”; choose your own unique username. Choose a password that is long, strong, and unique. We recommend a combination of at least 20 uppercase, lowercase, numeric, and symbol characters that you do not use on any other web site.

If you’re feeling confused or overwhelmed, our affordable WordPress hosting will put your mind at ease.