Category: Articles (Page 212 of 258)

Personal opinions and how-to’s that I’ve written both here and as contributions to other blogs.

On Open Source Entitlements: Users

December 4, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

This post is part two of two on a series of open source entitlement.

In the previous post, I mentioned that working in the world of open source has the potential for others to feel a sense of entitlement. The thing is, I don’t believe that this isn’t limited just to contributors.

Granted, I don’t think those who end up using free and open source software aim to present themselves as being entitled – I mean, they are taking advantage of the software that contributors have made available, right?

But the flip side of this is that users who find themselves working with open source software set expectations that may far exceed the amount for which they paid for the software.

On Open Source Entitlements: Contributors

December 4, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

This post is part one of two on a series of open source entitlement.

One of the challenges that comes with working with and using open source is the danger for it breed a sense of entitlement.

For the most part, I don’t think those get who involved in open source software aim to become entitled – after all, building open source projects is a labor of love, right?

We spend our time that could be spent doing other things volunteering to work on something that we’re passionate about, and that we believe will help to make the world (or at least a few people’s lives) a bit better.

But the underbelly of this is that people who find themselves involved in open source either as contributors or as users end up acting entitled from time-to-time.

Should There Be Consistency in Product Landing Page Design?

December 3, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

I’d venture to say that most anyone you ask will say that a product’s landing page design plays one of the most important roles in generating conversions. After all, why else would we have tools and products dedicated solely to studying visitor analytics, data tracking, a/b testing, and so on?

Common sense, right?

Granted, there are certain things that are known to work when building landing pages. That is to say that there are principles that are tried, true, and proven as it relates to creating landing pages for working to sell products to users.

The thing is, all of these principles can be dressed up differently depending on the color scheme, company branding, culture, verbiage, and so on.

With that said – and I’m sure there’s an answer for those of you who are designers, marketers, and/or usability experts who are reading along – how much, if at all, does the consistency of landing page design matter for products that belong to a single brand?

Should We Delete Old Repositories?

November 27, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

Anyone that does design or development (or even writing, really) as either a hobby or for a living knows that feeling of going back and looking at their old work – and cringing.

We know that we’re making progress in our work when we look at something we once did and think “What was I doing?”

The funny thing is, whatever we’re designing, developing, or writing today is going to be treated that way sometime in the not-so-distant future, right?

I digress on that point.

Anyway, for me, one of the things that I find myself debating is how long I should keep some of my open source code repositories around.

Using WordPress For Web Application Development

November 25, 2013 / Tom

Comments on this post are closed. Please leave comments on each article's respective page.

As WordPress continues to grow in popularity and continues to evolve as a web application, developers are beginning to see how it can be used for web application development.

This isn’t to say that it should replace any of the frameworks or foundations that are already available, but that it should be considered as a serious contender for certain types of web applications.

In my latest series on Envato, I’m going to be taking a look at what it means to use WordPress for web application development, how it differs from existing frameworks and foundations, how to think about it in the context of design patterns, and why its existing facilities provide a solid foundation outside of the box.