Frank Waive

Webdesigner in Warri Nigeria

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Archives for January 2013

Web Design Mathematics

January 22, 2013 by frankwaive 1 Comment

Mathematics is the most important subject/course taught in schools, don’t get me wrong, I am one of those people who don’t like mathematics, this probably is a transferred dislike I had for my first mathematics teachers. Some people just don’t like numbers, formulas and equations but Math is everywhere, even where you wouldn’t expect it, graphic design, web design, programming etc you’ll need some math, you can’t avoid it, so live with it!

For this article, I’ll be concentrating on web design, the mathematics involved in web design, we’ll be using layout calculations (Responsive Layout) as an example.

Lets talk width calculations, in ordinary fixed width design, design measurements especially widths are done in pixels (px), in responsive web design, they are done in percentages (%). I’ll assume you already know how to design websites and you’re conversant with divs and css.

When using divs for your site site structure, a simple rule applies, rows before columns, the rows are then split into columns, This principle applies to most designs such as the this one for example
Web Design Math

How Percentage (%) Measurements Work
These days, desktops and laptops are no longer the only media through which people access the internet, we now have a variety of devices ranging from mobile phones, to tablets, to TVs, apps etc. As good as this sounds for the end user, this development present a challenge for web designers/developers who now have to make websites look good and usable in all of these devices regardless of their screen size and OS.
To beat this, Responsive Web Design was coined.

“Responsive web design (often abbreviated to RWD) is an approach to web design in which a site is crafted to provide an optimal viewing experience—easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling—across a wide range of devices (from desktop computer monitors to mobile phones).” – Wikipedia

Percentage based measurements would simply render the width of the page/element based on the size of the container element/browser for example, if the #wrapper of a site is set to be 80% in width, the wrapper would be 80% of the browser size, if an element placed immediately inside the wrapper is given the size of 50%, such an element’s size would be 50% of the #wrapper’s width not 50% of the browser width.

Let’s use this design as an example
web design maths

 

The Solution

*{
-webkit-box-sizing: border-box; /* Safari/Chrome, other WebKit */
-moz-box-sizing: border-box; /* Firefox, other Gecko */
box-sizing: border-box; /* Opera/IE 8+ */
}

The above code would adjust the border-box model affecting every element in you design such that your assigned width will be the actually width regardless of padding and border you may have attributed to the element, that is, if you assign 500px as width to an element, 50px as padding and 5px as border, the actual width you’ll get would be 500px which would not be the case without the above code. Using the same figures, without the above code, your displayed width would be equals assigned width 500px + padding 50px + border 5px = 555px.

To make the code work for a specific element rather than all elements, replace the * with the selector ID(#) or class name as the case may be, for example, say we have a div with the ID(#) #asia, to fix the border-box model

For #asia, replace the * with #asia just like this

#asia{
-webkit-box-sizing: border-box; /* Safari/Chrome, other WebKit */
-moz-box-sizing: border-box; /* Firefox, other Gecko */
box-sizing: border-box; /* Opera/IE 8+ */
}

“Your designs don’t need to look exactly the same in every browser, they just need to look good in every browser.”

Filed Under: Nigerian Website Designer, Tutorials Tagged With: border box, border box model, how to get a web designer in Nigeria, Nigerian Web Designer, Nigerian Website Designer, Responsive Web Design, RWD, Warri Website Designer, Web Designer

Billboard Design Inspiration

January 14, 2013 by frankwaive Leave a Comment

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Filed Under: Nigerian Website Designer Tagged With: billboard design inspiration

How to get web design & development Jobs

January 10, 2013 by frankwaive 2 Comments

how to get web design & development projects

Getting good at web design/development is good, its essential but it’s not the ultimate. The most successful web designers/developers are not necessarily the best at web design itself, but are more than average in design, marketing, customer relations and public relations. To be successful, you’ll have to have a good mix of all these. I try to help you solve more than one of these challenges in this post.

Networking
We live in a social world, no Man is an island as they say, as humans we need one another to survive. Especially in developing countries where there is no recruitment infrastructure, you’ll need referral. People you know would introduce you to people they know who needs your services, those would in turn introduce you to those they know that needs your services as well, the chain goes on. No matter the services needed, a soon to be client would most likely knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who is a web developer, personally this accounts for at least 40% of all my projects. Its important you give a good first impression to your prospective clients and maintain a good relationship with your already existing client, people would not introduce you to other prospective clients if they think you’d embarrass them either by sub-standard work or bad behavior.
In a highly competitive and, in most places, saturated market, you need to make sure your reputation as a freelancer is well-managed and continues to grow. It’s very possible to get a good reputation without being the best in the world, and it’s even easier to lose that reputation. You could even apply incentives such as referral bonus to motivate your old clients to help you get new ones.

Social Media
Nothing on the Internet right now does marketing like social media, services like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pintrest, On-line Forums (Nigeria- http://www.nairaland.com webmasters section) if used can help sell your services as a web designer. Make sure all your connections/friends/followers on these services know you’re a web developer/designer. Showcase what you’ve done to them, you could also offer referral incentives here, you’d be surprised how many prospective marketers you’d motivate!

Online Persona/ Portfolio
In this day and age, I think its very dumb for a web designer/ developer not to have an online portfolio. With proper SEO, this could at least help you get local search traffic for prospective clients, it could also serve as a referral point, where you refer prospective clients/partners to. It should showcase what you’ve done, what you’re capable of doing and who your clients are.
“Your website should be at the centre of your marketing strategy. It’s where people go to see who you are, what you’re about, whether you know what you’re talking about and what work you have done. It’s your silent 24/7 salesman, and it needs to be right. Fortunately, what your website needs is straightforward:

-Well-presented work with a good description of the roles you played
-A brief history of who you are and why you’re where you are
– Contact details that are easily accessible
-Content that is continually tweaked, added to, and updated”

Email Marketing
Every person you know is your audience, even folks you’ve never met. Start from your email address book, every contact there is an audience and either a potential customer or referrer! You could also simply take out time to scan your mailbox, find all those mails that you received that was sent to many people, copy the email addresses and you’ll already have a large audience.

Make sure you’re clear about your intentions. If you’re starting a new business – it should be clear that you are going to be charging for your services. Be certain, from the start, that your potential client (and friend) knows that you’re not giving work away for free.

Only offer help where you can make an honest, positive difference. These people trust you, don’t abuse that trust just to build your portfolio. In the long run, your friendship (and your reputation) is more important than your portfolio.

Start small and over-deliver. Don’t promise the moon in order to sell your services. It’s always better to start with a small project and execute it perfectly. If you have an idea on how to expand the project, discuss it after you’ve proven you’re a genius.

Freelance Sites
There are a number of sites that help freelancers get jobs, many of such sites do not only provide jobs for web designers and developers but also programmers, database administrators etc. Getting jobs from sites like this is quite competitive so be patient, here are some of such sites

 

Odesk

 

Project for hire

Get a coder

Smashing Jobs

Elance

 

Further reading
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/08/24/marketing-rules-and-principles-for-freelancers/

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/50-freelance-job-sites-for-designers-programmers-best-of/

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/12/21/essential-habits-of-an-effective-professional-freelancer/

Filed Under: Nigerian Website Designer

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