<![CDATA[Misty Beier's Blog]]> http://www.misty-beier.com/Blog/Posts/Page-1/m1.aspx 60 <![CDATA[When Family Members are Involved with the Website]]> http://www.misty-beier.com/Blog/2010/01/31/When-Family-Members-are-Involved-with-the-Website/m1.aspx Well it happened to me, finally. I learned my lesson when family members are involved. I'm not going to mention names for the sake of dignity, but this really upsets me and I have to move on.

I redesigned a website a while back and didn't think twice that a family member had already set it up. I thought it was just a small bump because everyone agreed that it needed to be redesigned. I go to work on it and even spend extra non-paying hours to optimize and add information for a better user experience. The site was finished and my code was sent off to a distant black box.

]]> AndreBeier Sun, 31 Jan 2010 19:40:43 GMT http://www.misty-beier.com/Blog/2010/01/31/When-Family-Members-are-Involved-with-the-Website/m1.aspx <![CDATA[Finished design for Cowboy In Motel website!]]> http://www.misty-beier.com/Blog/2009/12/07/Finished-design-for-Cowboy-In-Motel-website/m1.aspx I just finished up the new design for the Cowboy In Motel website. Take a look: New design for Cowboy In Motel website.

]]> Misty Beier Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:43:08 GMT http://www.misty-beier.com/Blog/2009/12/07/Finished-design-for-Cowboy-In-Motel-website/m1.aspx <![CDATA[Trendy JetBlue and their user-friendly flight map]]> http://www.misty-beier.com/Blog/2009/12/07/Trendy-JetBlue-and-their-user-friendly-flight-map/m1.aspx I checked out JetBlue's website and found their flight map to be awesome. It's trendy and much more user-friendly than the UI other airlines have so not just travel agents can use it.

It's how booking a flight online was meant to be!

]]> Misty Beier Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:39:00 GMT http://www.misty-beier.com/Blog/2009/12/07/Trendy-JetBlue-and-their-user-friendly-flight-map/m1.aspx <![CDATA[Newly Designed Cowboy In Motel Website in Progress]]> http://www.misty-beier.com/Blog/2009/10/19/Newly-Designed-Cowboy-In-Motel-Website-in-Progress/m1.aspx I'm working on a very exciting project out of Big Water, Utah. The Cowboy In Motel website is going to have a new look soon: Cowboy In Motel test site.

]]> Misty Beier Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:52:51 GMT http://www.misty-beier.com/Blog/2009/10/19/Newly-Designed-Cowboy-In-Motel-Website-in-Progress/m1.aspx <![CDATA[The Compatibility View Button in IE8]]> http://www.misty-beier.com/Blog/2009/03/23/The-Compatibility-View-Button-in-IE8/m1.aspx I'm a big Firefox fan. So when Internet Explorer finally came out with IE8, I was a bit curious. A bunch of questions came to mind as a web designer: is this going to make my CSS life easier and will people finally give up on IE6 and upgrade?!

I checked out the home page for IE8 and read about the Compatibility View button. I thought to myself, "Now, that's nice. Gives me a reason to download it I guess."

]]> Misty Beier Tue, 24 Mar 2009 02:19:15 GMT http://www.misty-beier.com/Blog/2009/03/23/The-Compatibility-View-Button-in-IE8/m1.aspx <![CDATA[Website Browser Compatibility with Firefox 2 and Firefox 3]]> http://www.misty-beier.com/Blog/2009/03/23/Website-Browser-Compatibility-with-Firefox-2-and-Firefox-3/m1.aspx I know it's been a month since I posted anything new and I haven't been motivated to write part 2 of What's the Difference Between SEO and SEM.

I've been thinking about a way to have Firefox 2 and Firefox 3 on my computer to check compatibility of websites. I decided to look it up and found lifehacker.com had a pretty good article explaining it. I just wanted to be able to view both Firefox 2 and Firefox 3 without any additional downloads and create separate profiles to keep my updated addons. Here's my process:

]]> Misty Beier Tue, 24 Mar 2009 02:00:54 GMT http://www.misty-beier.com/Blog/2009/03/23/Website-Browser-Compatibility-with-Firefox-2-and-Firefox-3/m1.aspx <![CDATA[What’s the Difference Between SEO & SEM: Part 1 of 2]]> http://www.misty-beier.com/Blog/2009/02/02/Whatrsquos-the-Difference-Between-SEO-amp-SEM-Part-1-of-2/m1.aspx First off, let’s define SEO and SEM:

SEO:
Search Engine Optimization
SEM:
Search Engine Marketing

I’ll try to keep this short, but it won’t be easy since this is a great interest of mine.

So what’s the difference between SEO and SEM? Let’s start with SEO.

SEO is used mostly by web designers and front-end web developers to optimize a website for search engines. In other words, SEO helps people find your website. This is done by:

]]> Misty Beier Mon, 02 Feb 2009 14:30:58 GMT http://www.misty-beier.com/Blog/2009/02/02/Whatrsquos-the-Difference-Between-SEO-amp-SEM-Part-1-of-2/m1.aspx <![CDATA[The WaSP Curriculum Framework]]> http://www.misty-beier.com/Blog/2009/01/26/The-WaSP-Curriculum-Framework/m1.aspx When I was in college, I griped and complained at my graphic design teacher. A lot of his teachings were purely basic as if the students had no idea what graphic design was or the programs we were using. Most of the stuff it seemed like you should of known before taking any classes. I bet I was the most disliked student in his classes.

Now, I don't even feel like I went to college. Let me explain: I'm talking about issue 276 from A List Apart on web design being "stuck in the Stone Age." Most of what I've learned has been self-taught with some work experience. But really, how do we expect college graduates to get a job when they have never learned to code XHTML or not having any knowledge of the history of typography?

]]> Misty Beier Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:36:53 GMT http://www.misty-beier.com/Blog/2009/01/26/The-WaSP-Curriculum-Framework/m1.aspx <![CDATA[XHTML Challenge]]> http://www.misty-beier.com/Blog/2009/01/23/XHTML-Challenge/m1.aspx I came across the XHTML Challenge site from Web Designer Wall and entered my website against some local web design firms. So far, so good. My code validates, the markup and content ratios look good, and the use of conditional comments and no tables makes it a good challenge.

Here are my xhtml challenges:

]]> Misty Beier Fri, 23 Jan 2009 21:52:56 GMT http://www.misty-beier.com/Blog/2009/01/23/XHTML-Challenge/m1.aspx <![CDATA[Deciding on a CSS Framework]]> http://www.misty-beier.com/Blog/2009/01/18/Deciding-on-a-CSS-Framework/m1.aspx I came across an interesting way to work with CSS from a thread on the FreelanceSwitch Forum. The link took me to a page that gives an overview on the 960 Grid System. I just now watched the video on the introduction and I feel like this was something I needed a long time ago.

The 960 Grid System has great reviews from web designers and developers. It uses a framework that's easy to understand and makes laying out websites fast. The only problem I have with it, is that it's limit is a fixed-width of 960px, hence the name. So, I looked at Blueprint and this CSS framework seems to be a lot more flexible. But I don't know which to use. I'd like to create my own, but how long would it take?

]]> Misty Beier Sun, 18 Jan 2009 21:07:46 GMT http://www.misty-beier.com/Blog/2009/01/18/Deciding-on-a-CSS-Framework/m1.aspx