UTEP IEEE Presentation - 11/30/12

The 10 Most Important Things You Will Ever Learn About
Web Design and Starting a Business (Not Really) November 30, 2012

Brandon Silverstein •Graduated from UTEP in December 2004 with a
B.S. in Computer Science. •Freelance web designer during college. •Started Impulse Development in September 2006.

N U M B E R 1 Web design starts
with HTML and CSS.

html5boilerplate.com

<!DOCTYPE html>     <html class="no-js">  <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge,chrome=1"> <title></title> <meta name="description" content=""> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width">  <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/normalize.css"> <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/main.css"> <script src="js/vendor/modernizr-2.6.1.min.js"></script> </head> <body>   <p>Hello world! This is HTML5 Boilerplate.</p> <script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.8.0/jquery.min.js"></script> <script>window.jQuery || document.write('<script src="js/vendor/jquery-1.8.0.min.js"><\/script>')</ script> <script src="js/plugins.js"></script> <script src="js/main.js"></script> </body> </html>

body { background-color: orange; } p { color: blue; font-weight:
bold; font-size: 5.0em; text-align: center; }

HTML = Content CSS = Style

<!DOCTYPE html>     <html class="no-js">  <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge,chrome=1"> <title></title> <meta name="description" content=""> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width">  <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/normalize.css"> <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/main.css"> <script src="js/vendor/modernizr-2.6.1.min.js"></script> </head> <body>   <p>Hello world! This is HTML5 Boilerplate.</p> <script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.8.0/jquery.min.js"></script> <script>window.jQuery || document.write('<script src="js/vendor/jquery-1.8.0.min.js"><\/script>')</ script> <script src="js/plugins.js"></script> <script src="js/main.js"></script> </body> </html>

Semantic HTML <h1>Most Important Heading</h1> <h2>Less Important Heading</h2> <p>Paragraph Text</p>
<img src="utep.jpg" />

N U M B E R 2 Good websites are
driven by content.

Content First •Decide which content is most important to the
user. •Organize content in an easy-to-use navigation system. •If a user can’t find content, say goodbye.

What are the two most important things to users when
visiting a restaurant website?

What are the two most important things to users when
visiting a restaurant website? Menu and Hours

Home History Menu Cooking Catering FAQ Links Contact Us Careers

N U M B E R 3 Mobile devices have
completely changed web design.

Mobile FYI •378,000 iPhones sold daily. •1,000,000 Android devices activated
daily. •371,000 babies born daily. •Source: lukew.com

Flash • Flash was very popular for building websites. •
Apple killed Flash. • iOS devices have never had Flash installed (battery life, security risks, etc.) • Adobe won’t support Flash in Android 4.1.

Browsers/Devices • Internet Explorer 7, 8, 9, 10 • Safari
• Firefox • Chrome • iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5 • iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, iPad Mini • Thousands of Android Devices

Deliver a unified browsing experience to all devices.

Full Site Home About Menu Events Contact Mobile Site Home
About Menu Events Contact

Responsive Design

Responsive Design •One set of HTML/CSS/JS code. •Use CSS to
change the layout of pages based on device width. •Google’s recommend method for serving mobile content.

p { font-size: 2.0em; } @media screen and (min-width: 768px)
{ p { font-size: 1.0em; } }

mediaqueri.es responsiveprocess.com

N U M B E R 4 El Paso is
a great place to start a business.

Starting a Business •Work somewhere else first. •Find a good
accountant. •Find a good lawyer to prepare contracts.

N U M B E R 5 Don’t write a
business plan.

Business Plans •Business plans are educated guesses. •Business plans set
unrealistic expectations. •Create a general mission statement to follow.

N U M B E R 6 Learn how to
say no.

No! •We turn down projects that are not a good
fit. Budget, timeline, etc. •We push back on client recommendations if needed. •You will never make everyone happy.

N U M B E R 7 Know your price.

Know Your Price • Don’t work for free unless it
is for an internship. • Discounted work rarely leads to more higher paying work. • Hired a candidate because they told me what they wanted to get paid. • Be confident in your pricing and ability.

N U M B E R 8 Taxes are the
worst.

Taxes •Taxes aren’t the worst, but it sucks to pay
them. •Pay tax throughout the year. •Paying a lot of tax is not the worst problem to have.

N U M B E R 9 Network

Network •You never know who you are going to meet.
•Word of mouth is very important. •El Paso is very small. •Join groups.

N U M B E R 1 0 Don’t be
afraid of change.

Change •Change is scary. •Try to make all business decisions
temporary. •Change keeps you motivated.

Read This Book

THANKS! [email protected]

UTEP IEEE Presentation - 11/30/12

UTEP IEEE Presentation - 11/30/12

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