Landing pages are bound to come up for almost any type of client. How can we designers and developers help clients reach their conversion goals, while making it easy for them to create these landing pages? Special guest Shawn Maida returns to the show to discuss how his company uses landing pages themselves, as well as how they build landing pages for clients. We run the gamut of different types of landing pages, as well as different client goals. We discuss solutions we’ve built in ExpressionEn...
Jul 14, 2016•1 hr 3 min
Tired of websites looking the same? So are we! Hosts Lea and Emily discuss how signature design style benefits designers and their clients. We weigh in on the pros and cons, how to find a signature design style and apply it, as well as how other phases of a project cycle is affected by a design style. Lea also shares some resources to help designers create their own signature design style. < Download MP3 >      < Listen o...
Jun 30, 2016•1 hr 9 min
When we go online, the stresses and triggers of our offline lives go with us. So the apps, sites and technology we use online need to account for those stressors. Special guest Beth Dean returns to the show, this time to talk about emotional intelligence in design. She shares her own lessons learned working at Facebook, trying to anticipate and avoid the friction that can occur when the design process doesn’t consider the human factor. Beth also offers tips for how to be more emotionally intelli...
Jun 16, 2016•56 min
Websites are no longer silos. There is an increasing need to connect various services together through their APIs. Solspace founder and developer Mitchell Kimbrough returns to the show to explain how he approaches requests for 3rd-party API integration. He shares what a good API looks like, emphasizes a discovery-first approach, goes through technical tips like his “crud” script to help test assumptions and troubleshoot, but most importantly, shares scenarios on how to navigate the human element...
Jun 02, 2016•1 hr
SVGs aren’t just another image format. They are code. They are infinitely scalable. And they can be manipulated with CSS and JS to create both subtle and dramatic interface experiences. Designer and front-end dev Brenda Storer joins the show to give us a primer on scalable vector graphics, from how they are different from the familiar PNG, JPG and GIF, to browser support, to the underlying code elements and attributes. Brenda offers recommendations for optimizing SVGs and making them more access...
May 19, 2016•57 min
Where does progressive enhancement fit in the web today? Developer Aaron Gustafson, author of Adaptive Web Design, returns to the show to update us on how progressive enhancement fits for today’s mobile web design & development workflow. Not only do we go through the technical specifics of progressive enhancement, we chat about how design and user experience work hand-in-hand alongside the business benefits inherent when building an inclusive site or app. < Download MP3 >&a...
May 05, 2016•1 hr 23 min
An add-on with a single code base that supports five different CMSs? That’s the unicorn of platform-agnostic add-on dev, and it is just as illusive. Special guest Eric Lamb shares how he developed an efficient, smart approach to porting his popular ExpressionEngine add-on, Backup Pro, to four other content management systems (with more planned). The key? Abstraction. He also details the nuances of working with different communities and submitting add-ons to different marketplaces, as well as the...
Apr 21, 2016•56 min
There are a lot of moving parts to running a business — how do you get through it all in an efficient manner? Emily and Lea go through the tools, resources, and services Bright Umbrella utilizes to run a business more smoothly. We chat about past and current experiences with task management and business development, invoices and time tracking, and everything in between — all to show you how to help you save time (and money!) for your business! < Download MP3 >  &a...
Apr 07, 2016•1 hr 29 min
A good workflow means fewer hiccups in a project build. An automated workflow means fewer hiccups and faster production! Front-end developer Dan Tello joins the show to share how he and his team at Viget use build tools and task runners to automate their front-end (and CMS!) development. Dan details his process learning Grunt, then making the switch to Gulp and why he prefers it. He shares his Gulp Starter repo and details the various tools he uses for the different assets he builds. We also dis...
Mar 24, 2016•50 min
Choosing and applying colors on the web can get complicated quickly, especially when considering user experience and accessibility. Don’t rely on assumptions, urges designer and illustrator Geri Coady! She shares tips on how to make informed design choices that improve a site’s interactivity for all users. We talk about color’s impact on a site, compare color applications to other industries, and share tools on how to test color decisions that enhances a web experience. < Download MP3 &am...
Mar 10, 2016•58 min
ExpressionEngine for large-scale sites? Yes, says EE expert Travis Smith, and he’s got the statistics to back it up! Travis returns to the show as we revisit one of our EE Podcast episodes on large EE sites to discuss what has changed and what’s stayed the same. Travis details his updated statistics about the largest EE sites on the web today, and discusses the factors that make a site “large.” He also shares tips for efficient development, good infrastructure and mitigating the challenges large...
Feb 25, 2016•56 min
Curious about flexbox? Web designer, developer and author Zoe Gillenwater says the flexible box model ranks high among what seasoned web developers should learn now. We discuss what the hype is about, how it differs from other layout methods, and where it’s best used. We also talk about the changing landscape of layout methods overall, and Zoe shares simple and complex use cases for flexbox. < Download MP3 >      < Listen...
Feb 11, 2016•54 min
Are you pricing your services correctly? Do you know what it costs to just maintain your business? Are you making a profit? Do you know how to correctly estimate? How do you talk to clients and prospects about budgets and costs? If you work for yourself and you aren’t asking yourselves these questions, then you may be hurting the future of your business. Special guest Brad Weaver joins the show to offer practical pricing tips and strategies that can help your business today—as in right now! We t...
Jan 28, 2016•1 hr 9 min
The fast-paced nature of the web industry can cause confusion as to how to prioritize what to learn, especially if a framework or technique is obsolete in a year. Our first guest of 2016, front-end developer Susan Robertson, urges us to take a step back before immediately diving into something new. We discuss why we think there’s such a panic to learn new things, how to avoid this panic, and also share tips on how evaluate what is actually worth investing time to learn. < Download MP3 &am...
Jan 14, 2016•1 hr 4 min
For our 2015 season finale, we look back on the past year and share some of our lessons learned with our Bright Umbrella intern Erin! From tech to business to life, we share the important lessons we learned this year, along with our goals for next. We also take a look back at our 2015 guests’ answers to our Rapidfire 10 Questions, and then turn the questions on ourselves! We’re on a hiatus until the new year (tune back in January 14, 2016), and wish you all the happiest of holidays! < Dow...
Dec 03, 2015•58 min
