by Doug Justice

If you think just having a good website to be viewed by your potential customers on their computers is enough…think again.  The next generation of marketing experts say that making your site available for customers on the go….i.e. on their mobile devices…is the way to pick up more customers than your competition.

But it’s actually more than just making your website available to the mobile users, it’s about making the website an experience especially for your mobile users.  Still confused?  Think about how most websites render for their mobile users.  More than 85% of the websites out there do one of two things.  They either just allow the website to render on the mobile devices as if they were on a real computer (which is ok considering the Droid and iPhone devices use the same browser as if you were on an actual computer) or they create a “mobile friendly” version of the site which basically strips out all the bells and whistles and images from the site and just allows the text of the site to be read as if you were viewing it on an RSS feed.

The problem with both of those scenarios is either the site renders too small on their phone screens, or the user’s experience is completely deflated when you take out all of the eye candy a website is supposed to use to entice and attract customers to their business.  Just like any huge company…you have to be serving up marketing content for your customers in all shapes and sizes.  Which means you need a mobile enhanced website like some of the examples I’ve featured in this article.

If you are ready for your website to become a “mobile experience” for your potential and existing customers, contact us by any of the ways featured below.  The superheroes are ready to assist you.

-Doug Justice is the CEO & Chief Superhero of Justice Solutions LLC.  He is an expert in over 10 different programming languages and development methodologies and performs analysis of company development teams, new business concepts, and web marketing potentials.

 

 

Need a quick tidbit about who we are?  Ok, here it goes…Justice Solutions are the Superheroes of Web Development, Mobile Apps (such as iPhone/iPad/Droid), and Custom Graphics/Marketing. Based out of Orlando, Florida, we call ourselves “superheroes” because more often than not, we are called in to “save the day” either because another development company dropped off the face of the earth, a fast solution is needed due to an upcoming deadline, or it was just a coding problem that others just couldn’t come up with a solution for.

We specialize in the following programming languages: PHP, asp.NET, ColdFusion, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Flex, Flash, Actionscript, Javascript, and HTML5.  We also are 100% proficient with MS-SQL and MySQL databases including writing complex stored procedures and queries, as well as optimizing searches and indexes for better performance.

Many companies do SEO optimization analysis and others due security analysis, and still others do performance analysis.  Justice Solutions does a full recurring analysis of your website and online marketing methods guaranteed to improve all areas of your business, including the coding and proficiency of the site as well as the security and integrity of your database information.

by Doug Justice

Have you unsubscribed from Groupon’s email notifications?  If not…you should….well, not entirely but you’re in for a great laugh if you do.

Next time you receive a Groupon email message, click the unsubscribe link and unsubscribe from all Groupon’s email notifications.  After submitting your request you’ll see what appears to be a live web cam of “Derrick” who is apparently responsible for the email blast notifications at Groupon.

The message says, “Sorry to see you go, but we’d like to introduce you to Derrick…he’s the one who thought you’d enjoy receiving the email notifications.”  It then gives you the option to “Punish Derrick”…..so I did.  What happens next was so hilarious that I nearly fell out of my chair.  After the punishment ended, it asked if I felt bad and would like to resubscribe.  For their creativity I just had to.

So for those of you who have sites dependent upon members staying with your notifications, please consider having something like this added to your site by Justice Web Solutions, who knows…you may just save a member by punishing one of your own employees.

-Doug Justice is the CEO & Chief Superhero of Justice Solutions LLC.  He is an expert in over 10 different programming languages and development methodologies and performs analysis of company development teams, new business concepts, and web marketing potentials.

Ok, just a quick post today about an issue that I personally encountered that about baffled the living hell out of me.  If you have Dreamweaver CS3, this is what happened to me….maybe it’ll help you.

Opened a file…php….and edited it and saved it no problem.  Went to another .php file in my same project directory and as soon as I hit the “{” character….I got the dreaded, “Adobe Dreamweaver Has Stopped Working”…and so it closes and the frustration began.  This also happened on a few .cfm ColdFusion files as well and in some cases it just involved me clicking in the code region like I was going to type something…but never got the chance as DW closed right away.

So after doing some digging that day, still couldn’t find anything.  Thankfully I found the answer which said the error was caused by….Daylight Savings Time!!!!  I had been in Arizona for many years and never changed my clocks on my computer since Arizona doesn’t change to and from Daylight Savings Time.

I thought about it and said you know, the problems did happen right on a Monday morning after the clock change…I wonder.  So following the instructions I went to C:Users<username>AppDataRoamingAdobeDreamweaver 9Configuration. (or if you have XP or Pre-Vista – C:Documents and Settings[Your username]Application DataAdobeDreamweaver
9Configuration), deleted the WinFileCache*.dat  from that directory, then restarted Dreamweaver….in a flash (no pun intended) it was working like a charm again.

I’m sure this has been fixed in later versions but just in case you’re not able to upgrade yet to CS4 and you’re still using CS3 like me, you’ll definitely want to make sure you watch for this in the future.  Hope it helps someone else….let me know if it does.

As a business owner in development projects, there are days where I just wonder if I’m doing the right thing and being a good businessperson.  I recently had a project which just was one bad thing after another happening, and while it wasn’t really anything I caused, the customer was very upset.  It led me to think about why things go wrong in web projects and what can I do to prevent them?

The simple fact is that Web Projects are very much like kids.  They each need to be raised, educated, and disciplined in pretty much the same way.  However, like kids, not all Web Projects are ever exactly the same since there are always different players involved, new technologies to explore, and plenty of kicking, screaming and crying when things don’t go exactly the way they are supposed to.

I get where my clients are coming from, and you always want to focus on the positive and not the negative for a new project, which is why in my contracts I put a “bugs” clause which basically says that the web is a huge place filled with plenty of facets and the slightest blemish in one of those facets can cause the entire project to be delayed, not function properly, etc.  However, I think it’s fair to say that even when I’ve been forced to sign a “sh*t happens” document when going to the doctors, it doesn’t make it any better if things go wrong.

So what can we do?  Do we play Scotty from Star Trek and just over-exaggerate the timelines so when things do go smoothly we’re heroes?  But that can limit the clients who need things done quickly and also force them into unneeded delays for their business as well.  Do we tell them about all the things that can go wrong and hope they sit back and say, “Wow thanks for letting me know all hell could break loose so I can prepare for it?”….not likely.  How about just giving up web development and just taking up selling pet rocks at a carnival…those people have it made!

But what happens when the google eyes fall off that night from the rock?  Or the little feet bend and snap and now looks like something out of a horror movie?  Do you get less upset because its a pet rock?  Or do you still get upset just a bit because money was spent and things didn’t go exactly as expected.

I guess the revelation here is that things go wrong in any business no matter what that business is.  I’m sure some engineers can weigh in here about how their project got completely screwed up, or even a restaurant owner who unfortunately had a shell from an egg make it into a food critic’s dish.

I think the key here is how you handle those issues as both a consumer and a vendor. If you are a vendor…do what you can to make things right by understanding the customer’s frustration.  If you are a customer…if you see someone trying to make an effort to right a wrong (whether its themselves or just in general) work with them to get to the other side.  I’ve had great relationships made by hanging in there with a vendor and seeing just how good they do in a crisis situation to make everything turn out right.

So….just like kids….there will be good days and bad days….but it will never change your love or understanding towards them.  I think we as a society get too wrapped up in the “me” and really need to step back sometimes and not allows ourselves to take out our frustrations for other aspects of our life on these situations when they present themselves.

Hopefully this will help you as a customer reading this to know we will always work with you as a client to make things right if something should go wrong, or if you are a business owner…know that you are not alone and things can and do go wrong at times.  Try your best to rectify the situation and hopefully your customer will see your efforts.

Doug