So what do Ford’s effort and BMW’s success with car design have to do websites?  Bear with me for just another moment as I set the backdrop.

As I’m sure you’re well familiar, the auto manufacturing industry is in dire financial straights at the moment. The current hardships aren’t limited to just the U.S. auto makers though – all the global giants are feeling the pinch. Contributing to these woes are consumer tastes that vary significantly from market to market, leading manufactures to create unique product lines—and consequently, entirely unique factories, processes, work forces, and so on—for each of the car models.  The economics of this one-off approach, establishing and maintaining entire resource streams, either sets prices out of reach for many consumers or forces the companies to take a loss to maintain market share.

The success of the BMW 3 Series, in equal demand in Shanghai as it is in New York, Rome or Moscow, suggests that there is a common set of needs and wants that can be met through a single, well-built and intelligently-designed solution.

Now applying this universal appeal approach to website design.

What do higher education institutions and independent schools need and want from their website? Blackbaud Internet Solutions recently asked the question . . . and then delivered.

Much like Ford’s quest to unlock the formula for a universally appealing car, Blackbaud Internet Solutions set out to design a website platform that would meet the very specific needs of a broad segment of the education market.

The solution: NetCommunity Grow for Higher Education and Grow for Independent Schools. First unveiled on July 15th during the Higher Ed Webinar, Blackbaud’s school website solution received fantastic reviews from the many organizations in attendance.

So what do schools want from their website? To engage alumni, drive advancement, cultivate donors, extend their brand…?  All of them . . . and not necessarily in that order and not all in the same proportions.  Additional wish-list items and ‘must haves’ were decentralized work flow, an adaptable/brandable website design and a short project timeline.  By addressing each of these functional and design requirements in the Grow line of website solutions, Blackbaud was able to deliver a versatile, low fixed-price offering with a dramatically reduced deployment time.

Not stopping there, Grow is accompanied by Blackbaud’s Internet strategy services.  Not only do you get the car and training to use it, but you get upfront and ongoing performance review and advisory sessions on how to best to use such a powerful tool.

In his article, Kiley eloquently states, “The danger of building one car for multiple tastes is that you wind up dumbing it down: Rather than being impressive, the vehicle is merely inoffensive. The trick is to aim higher aesthetically without alienating anyone.”

To this end, Grow was built on to the latest web standards and designed with versatility in mind.  Starting with a sharp, modern design, Grow is set up to accommodate each organization’s color scheme, visual assets and unique branding.  Unlike the final form of a car when rolled off the assembly line, websites have the tremendous advantage of being living, accessible and adaptable properties—but only if originally built to be so.

NetCommunity Grow is worth a look, whether you’re a Higher Eduction Institution, Independent School or virtually any other 501c3 non-profit organization in need of a website.

Anticipating a positive response to this offer, I’ll be accepting submissions only until midnight Saturday, Jan 3rd—only about one day!

To be considered for this pro bono web work:

1. Be a non-profit organization with a direct impact on the Charleston, SC area
2. Be a direct contact at the non-profit requesting consideration
3. Be available for an introductory conversation by the close of business this Monday, January the 5th.
4. Submit your organization

That’s it! I look forward to speaking with the winning organizations this Monday.

I’m writing this post after recently being served some unsolicited criticism. Naturally, the first reaction is defensive. Recognizing this knee jerk reaction from a sensitive pride, I set the email aside and read it again later to hopefully learn something from my ‘e-lashing’ by the anonymous critic.

From this person’s perspective, the missing or misplaced website elements from particular portfolio projects appeared to be poor workmanship and a general lack of skill and knowledge. Of course, what is anything without proper perspective? Well, it’s your own reality.

So after digesting the feedback, I thought it better to give my critic a better understanding of my work and that scope and budget, among many other project factors, can influence a final product . . . not to mention the natural aging and evolution of a live website.

I replied, not as a mater of pride, but in an effort to correct a misperception of the services and quality that I deliver.

Everyone receives negative feedback. Most often it’s an opportunity to learn and improve. On other occasions it’s a chance to be humble. But some times, it’s a case where the record needs to be set straight.

Dominic Taverniti is the owner of Applied Web Vitals, a web design and development company specializing Dreamweaver templates and the Adobe Contribute CMS. Please feel free to contact us any time to explore your next web design or development project.

Why Adobe Contribute? Because Contribute works well with other applications . . . with ease! What we accomplished in this new client site, Netblaze.us, could very well have been built on another platform, but not with all these features packed into the budget.

The design for this site was drawn up and then coded from scratch. Using Contribute as the base for the site platform, all the special features chosen for integration, like flash animation, multiple javascript elements, web forms, Google Maps and more, could simply be plugged in where needed. Unlike the considerations with other database CMS (content management systems), Contribute allows us to start with a blank canvas and quickly build according to our best practices.

To back up really quickly, for those who aren’t familiar with Contribute or how it works, here’s a quick overview. Contribute is a workstation-based computer program (like Microsoft Word for lack of better example) that accesses websites via an FTP (file transfer protocol) connection over the internet. The real power features of Contribute are realized when the websites being managed are built on the Adobe Dreamweaver templates structure. So start to finish, the process would be 1. an experienced Dreamweaver template developer builds the website and launches it; 2. a website owner edits, publishes to and manages the website with Contribute.

I have to plug the Contribute platform once again for being virtually bulletproof. When I launched this site recently, I did so with full confidence that it—like the Contribute client sites before it—would be stalwart. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of several server-side database application, like WordPress and ecommerce templates. But with databases and server-side components, comes added complexity and the need for more maintenance down the road.

So in short, when the project calls for a custom design, client publishing capability, integrated applications and a long, long life span between developer intervention, Adobe Contribute is the hands-down platform of choice.

Netblaze Systems, Inc., located in Walnut Creak, CA—inland from the San Francisco Bay Area—is a network consulting and integration services provider.

Dominic Taverniti is the owner of Applied Web Vitals, a web design and development company specializing Dreamweaver templates and the Adobe Contribute CMS. Please feel free to contact us any time to explore your next web design or development project.

Thank You Body, located in Myrtle Beach, SC, offers a broad selection of spa services and products. The company has been in business for several years and have steadily improved their web presence.

Like many businesses, they found the build-it-yourself website tools provided by their hosting company to get them by for a period of time. That period of time recently came to an end! The company needed to rebrand their online image to reflect the quality of services that they actually deliver. Thank You Body contacted Applied Web Vitals to design and build the new e-commerce website for their spa and product business.

The Thank You Body website was built on an advanced Adobe Dreamweaver template structure for full Adobe Contribute accessibility. A database e-commerce application was installed on their server and integrated into the website design, providing a seamless shopping experience for their customers. Some of the special requirements for this spa website were dynamically generated gift certificates, an integrated affiliate program, a product vs. service segmented hierarchy . . . and of course, the ability to edit and manage everything without special technical skills.

Thank You Body health spa now has direct and easy access to their website at any time. Whether they need to update their company information or run a discount on spa products for the week, the business now has full control of their website.

Specs: PHP, CSS, XHTML, JavaScript, MySQL, Adobe Dreamweaver templates, Adobe Contribute website, Ecommerce Templates

Applied Web Vitals is a web design and development company. Please feel free to contact us to explore your next design, redesign or site enhancement project.

Over the course of the past year and a half, I’ve had the great privilege of consulting a number of Myrtle Beach small business owners. And in such a turbulent business climate, the value of our discussions were worth their weight in gold . . . for everyone involved. As a web specialist and small business consultant, my continual education is the value that I pass along . Well, this past year spent with local Myrtle Beach businesses—discussing their website needs, marketing campaigns and branding efforts (among many other topics)—has been a great leap forward in my professional education.

In the next chapter of my career, aptly named “Charleston,” I’ll be firing up a new web discussion group in the Charleston area for small business owners and non-profit organizations. A continuation of the Myrtle Beach incarnation, the Charleston Web Technology Discussion Group will be free and open to everyone, with discussions on topics such as: building and maintaining websites; search engine optimization; Internet marketing and measurement; business blogging; graphic design & do-it-yourself advertising; or wherever the discussion leads…

As always, bring your curiosity and any unanswered web design questions.

The Charleston Web Technology Discussion Group is led by Dominic Taverniti, owner of Applied Web Vitals.

We were hired to write and implement the XHTML, CSS and Java Script for this one page special purpose website. The website incorporates the latest standards in usability and web semantics as well as clean, light, search engine optimized code.

Applied Web Vitals is a web design and development company. Please feel free to contact us to explore your next design, redesign or site enhancement project.

Through a close dialog with the client, the site was mapped and a design, modeled after select premier online retailers, was mocked up for review and an enthusiastic approval.

TheTeakHut.com was built on the Dreamweaver template structure to give the client full site management control with Adobe Contribute. With our developed template platform in place, The Teak Hut was able to take the reins right out of gates and begin adding and removing content, creating new pages and optimizing their keywords for search engine placement.

The shopping cart application of choice was Ecommerce Templates, a robust and versatile cart that could be customized to meet The Teak Hut’s needs. Integrated throughout the site, a smooth shopping experience was achieved by seamlessly weaving the dynamic shopping cart functionality into every page on the site.

With sixty unique product categories and a very large, and growing, list of products, the ability to integrate the online shopping cart with the company’s Quickbooks POS system was an absolute must. The project required several e-commerce customizations and third part integrator, and in the end a one-of-a-kind solution was tailored for The Teak Hut.

For additional information on e-commerce websites

For additional information on Adobe Contribute, 2

Applied Web Vitals is a web design and development company. Please feel free to contact us to explore your next design, redesign or site enhancement project.

Contribute CS3 is a website editing software program for the PC and Mac, developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated. Contribute is designed to edit and “contribute” to sites originally built with Adobe Dreamweaver templates. The program allows users to update content, add pages, files and media without any technical expertise or HTML knowledge.

When built on a robust Dreamweaver template structure in conjunction with other select web technologies, Contribute enabled websites are given the legs of a full content management system (CMS). Based on clean HTML/XHTML, CSS and search engine optimized code, Contribute sites are offered some great advantages over other popular CMS platforms. Notably, traditional content management systems rely on server side technology and database counterparts that make customization and ongoing system management time intensive, technically complex and costly. Contribute sites on the other hand, once put into place, get better mileage between maintenance and have the huge advantage of simply having less parts to break—1. a premium Adobe program that comes with support and 2. straight forward server files—it doesn’t get any more simple than that.

Read how Adobe Contribute CS3 has helped Hopalong Animal Rescue save time, keep their website up-to-date and ultimately save the lives of more animals.

Applied Web Vitals’ Contribute CS3 website templates will incorporate a host of common small business website features and will come SEO and cross-browser compatible. Years of best practices, scripts and cutting edge techniques will make this line of Contribute CS3 website templates an exciting addition to the market.

Barnes & Nobles in Market Commons (1063 Howard Pkwy, Myrtle Beach, SC 29577)