OnWired, a full-service web design/development firm and all-around cool place to work, is on a quest to find our next superstar WordPress developer. We’re looking for someone with a creative mind, a keen understanding of user experience, exceptional communication skills, attention to detail, self-motivation, and the ability to hit the deadline every time.

On the technical side, you should be able to wrangle CSS, XHTML, WordPress, PHP, and SQL along with the occasional Javascript and AJAX. We’re not sticklers for fancy degrees. We just want someone who can get the job done.

You’ll get to work with a small, highly talented team of people who are incredibly passionate about what they do. We’ve got a part-time gig waiting for the right person and we really need someone who can hit the ground running.

Now we come to the pay-off. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to send your resume along with the world’s greatest cover letter to HireMe@OnWired.com. Explain your love affair with web standards. Dazzle and amaze us with your past work. Promise us that if we hire you, all of our wildest dreams will come true. If you are convincing enough, we’ll be in touch.

If you run one of those outsourcing firms in India, please don’t email us offering to span the globe with your low-cost coding skills. And if you happen to be the widow of a deposed Nigerian military officer, we kindly decline your offer to share your immense wealth with us.

Please include your salary requirements when applying.

Desired Technologies

• Modern Web technologies
• WordPress
• SQL
• PHP
• AJAX (all languages included)
• Work within XHTML/CSS environments - no tables

Bonus Technologies

• ExpressionEngine
• Drupal
• jQuery
• Have your own Wii-mote

Go’s approach to the busy landscape of real estate is much welcomed. They wanted to humanize the process and show we’re not another number to them.

Don’t take my word for it, here’s what Jacob Gube, a well known peer in our industry, had to say about it:

I think for a real estate company, they have a truly unique angle and they have a web design that manages to convey their core message.

Check out the article. If you’re a business looking for a great website, give us a shout and see if we were made for each other.

Let’s get serious:  System Administration is no laughing matter.  The needs are real.  The risk is great.  The probability of death is certain.  But… Hannibal’s on the jazz and there is no stopping him now.

Primary Directives:

• Recommend and implement an office-wide, secure file sharing solution.  Our team is both local/internal AND distributed from USA to Australia.
• Recommend and implement an office-wide secure archiving solution.
• Consolidate our web hosting.  We currently have 4 providers hosting many many sites.  We need to consolidate to one provider and migrate all the sites to the single host.
• Account for all domains and move to one domain registrar. 
• Clean up DNS entries.
• Setup tools for easy and secure remote administration of user access.  Users must be managed and organized in groups (Sales, Accounting, Systems, etc).
• Implement tools for sharing/storing sensitive passwords
• Implement development and staging environments for Rails (we run LMR (lemur) Linux/MySQL/Rails),  WordPress, Expression Engine, and potentially .NET. 
• Ensure consistent Source Code management and archival, and website archival.
• Recommend and implement new shared phone system – routing + voicemail + conference.  Skype is ok, need something more robust.

Secondary Objectives:

• Integrate various project tools to ensure they use plugins for intra tool communications.  (Pivotal Tracker to Project Management (undecided), to Basecamp, etc).
• Network traffic review of our connection to the internets (is our network setup optimized for what we can afford?)

That’s your piece of the plan. Let us know if you’re in.

In the last round, Lovely Charts and Creately were neck and neck, but Creately won out overall. This week Justproto and Gliffy go head-to-head.

Justproto

The Justproto Rundown:

Free Templates: 1

Design: Interface 6/10

Tools/Components: 8/10

Sharing:Public URL preview link

Pros:

• Customize interface with company logo
• Auto save
• Nice set of social icons, iab standard ads, and iphone/ipad/android tools
• Collaboration and co-edit ability
• Allows Master page templates
• Simple prototyping ability
• Rulers and grid with pixel increments
• Easy edit of size, shape, color, border, etc of any item through properties tab

Cons:

• No Export to pdf, png, or jpg.
• 1992 Windows-esk file icons used in interface… ok, maybe I’m biased here
• Limited to One free page.
• Bland Interface

Gliffy

The Gliffy Rundown:

Free Templates: Can’t even save one, 30 day trial unlimited

Design: Slightly cluttered interface 7/10

Tools/Components: 5/10

Sharing: Public URL, Embed, Export as: JPG, PNG, PDF

Pros:

• Share as image url or as site URL or embed in page
• Collaboration ability
• A few templates to choose from
• Revision history toolbar
• Spot color feature
• Simple grouping and ungrouping

Cons:

• Little focus on Wireframes
• Not many tools
• No measurement toolbars, or rulers.
• Cluttered Interface
• Can’t even save one template for Free — forced to sign up for 30 day trial.

Justproto vs. Gliffy — Final Score.

Justproto does have a slightly dated, bland interface, but it’s positive point is it’s focus on wireframes. Gliffy falls short in the wireframe department and it’s other uses seem to come from totally different realms — floor plans, really? I’m going to give this one to the design underdog here; Justproto comes in first. The wireframe tool set with iphone, ipad, android and correctly sized iab ads kick this application up a notch. Maybe the interface is 3 shades of white, but so what. At least it provides a simple layout and the ability to create a full page wireframe. Gliffy doesn’t even let you save your work until you sign up for the 30 day trial, what a hassle!

Wow, what a match! We have a double header lined up for next time with Mockingbird vs. Mockflow in round 1 and Creately vs. Justproto in round 2. The final battle will then ensue…

But there was something missing. They’re great communicators but, like vampiric xclones, they only work in total darkness. Something needed to be done…

Enter our heroine: “HTTP.” She got with TCP/IP and made the internet a whole lot more interesting. Their hot hook caused the world wide web and that’s when the party started. Web servers stepped up, handling “requests” and “responses” and web browsers brought game turning formless ASCII characters into pictures and words.

It wasn’t long until the world wide web witnessed its first miracle: the birth of truly horrific web pages. Ugly monsters without style or any semblance of usability. Indeed - the kinds of children only a system administrator could love…

Fast forward to today in 2010 where some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And after two and a half decades, the foundational science of the internet was lost and Designers took control of the web.

It makes sense really. Web users see only the web interface: the user experience (UX) is almost 100% governed by designers. The only case where hard core backend developers have a “direct” impact on users is when a site is abhorrently slow or the site is practically useless in function (“Error 500: Internal server error”). However, as users demand more complicated web applications, the Developer becomes more and more important because the code gets more and more complicated. This, in turn, requires more and more sophisticated management efforts. More and more… and more… The days of a simple “Brochure Site” are dead. The days of drag and drop, slide-out multi-layered dynamic interface, and commerce by default “Web Applications” are here.

Now, to the Point: the Great Divide

The minds of Designers and Developers are totally different. They are both creative but in completely different ways. Designers focus on what the user sees, developers focus on making it all work. More than ever, it is critical that Designers and Developers understand each other’s limits and capabilities.

This is the Designer / Developer Divide: a rift of opposing forces, neither good nor bad. The Ying and Yang. The Chocolate and Peanut Butter.

On Our Right: Designers

Generally speaking, Designers face the primary problem of finding creative inspiration – which is not always easy. It’s not like we’re all inherently born with every instantaneous creative impulse this Universe has to offer. Inspiration comes randomly and sporadically and when you’re expected to produce for a full time job, that pressure can hamper your creative freedom. Sometimes you just need a break to dislodge the creative block.

Once a Designer achieves the Nirvana of inspirational bliss, they build that slick beautiful interface everyone wants to see. That’s exactly how OnWired rolls. Yes. It is cool. It is beautiful. But, is it possible? A design element might be awesome, but then comes the reality check smack-down. Adding a seemingly simple “Add to Cart” button to a slide out interface wireframe takes a Designer 12.34 seconds once they know where it should go. However, that one small element might take hours to implement – especially if it’s an interface change and the code wasn’t already designed for it. (Yes, even here at the “ODub” hub, we deal with this issue regularly.)

And The Left: Developers

Developers are the often misunderstood, sociopath recluses forced to burn midnight oil to meet impossible deadlines. They are faced with the maddening task of logically forcing a web server and 5 different browsers to do as they are expected. The Designer’s vision may be beautiful, but it’ll take 6 MONTHS to get it working. This is a real problem for all software development. The experience required by a Developer to understand how complex a feature is, how long it will take to get it working AND push back when it will extend the deadline is hugely valuable.

Not to put too fine a point on things, but design is only the tip of the iceberg – the backend code represents 90% of the effort. Think about that. If a project takes a year to complete, only a month of Work Days is needed for design. The remaining 11 MONTHS is pure Development. That means a majority of the work we do as web professionals is never even seen by the client. This is an unappreciated fact. Therefore, updates must be frequently given to the customer to ensure they know what’s going on.

The Solution: Build a Strong Corpus Callosum

Now that we understand the rift, it’s obvious that something needs to be done. TCP/IP and HTTP utterly depend on each other for survival. Likewise, Developers and Designers utterly rely on each other to transcend interweb boundaries.

The solution to all of this is actually simple: Ensure your designers and developers are communicating. Only the dumbest of organizations would keep these two critical groups away from each other. And guess what? This means it’s up to the corpus callosum, the people managing the project and customer, to bridge that left and right divide.

Designers need to take into account the cost of interface elements. Developers need to know when to push the envelope of possibility and when to say, “Dude, breaking that sound barrier is going to take 6 months of serious pain.” Project Managers need to keep the interests of all sides in balance: Customers, Designers, and Developers.

Be sure both a Developer and Designer are together in project brainstorming meetings. And don’t let people shut down ideas - it’s important everyone is able to share thoughts openly. Being negative is a sure way to stop creativity in its tracks: keep it positive and constructive. I mean, imagine how lame Star Wars would have been if they’d listened to Commander Nageeto: “That’s impossible – we can’t build a space station with the power to destroy an entire planet!” If Vader had not Force crushed his larynx, the Death Star would still be a fleeting dream dancing in the mind of the Emperor.

Well there you have it: from the distant past to today. Understanding our roots and differences helps everyone move forward. And the sooner, the better. I want to see a 3-D holographic fully interactive web interface in my lifetime.

Few things are as misunderstood as SEO in the marketing world. Sure, the idea of SEO is easy to understand – get your site listed front and center on Google, Yahoo, or Bing and a veritable torrent of customers will flood your site filling your shopping cart with orders or subscriptions. Yes well, Costner’s “Field of Dreams” was fiction – there’s no “build it and they will come” here. With billions of pages out there, it’s complicated. You’re competing with millions of sites for a small slice of billions of users. It’s truly a daunting task and unfortunately, dreaming won’t help (just do a search on one of your key words to see how many pages Google returns).

Given all that I’ve said there, let’s look at some basic reasons your SEO strategy isn’t panning the gold you hoped for.

1. You want it all, and you want it now!

Patience is a virtue. Of course, this is one thing I lack myself… in impressively stellar ways really… And no wonder – we live in a world where feedback is near instantaneous in everything we do. But, in the world of SEO, you need to wait for web crawlers to pick up your page and index it. As I said – with billions of pages to index, catalog and rate, this could take a while (as in 6 months “a while”). Even then, you will be lucky to see your site show up in the first couple pages of results. Furthermore, depending on how many other sites or businesses you’re competing with for specific key words, it could be a year or more before your site lists near the top.

2. You’re not using the right words.

“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” – Inigo Montoya

So, you didn’t rigorously study industry trends to find the most relevant words? Big mistake. Big. HUGE.

In SEO, words matter. One of the great ironies of SEO is that the money isn’t always where we think it is. In other “words”, even though we think a certain word or phrase is going to be profitable, your potential customers might be searching for word variations you didn’t key on – or something completely different.

Ultimately, when it comes to words, all we Web Marketeers can do is study trends, calculate metrics, and make an informed decision based on our assumptions. You can’t afford to drop the ball. You need to keep adjusting your campaigns as you go along. Eventually, you’ll find the most profitable words that drive the most traffic.

3. Users are knocking, but you’re not answering…

Hits are pretty much useless if you have a 100% bounce rate. If your users aren’t staying, buying, or clicking your ads, your site is just hemorrhaging krugerrands. You need to maximize your UX, design, and content impact.

Of course, your SEO content is important – it’s what gets people to your door in the first place. But don’t forget the importance of your customer’s experience on the site. You need an easy interface where clients understand how to search or buy your products. You need a compelling message that appeals to your client’s desires, dreams, or emotions to get them to want your products. You need good “Calls to Action” to make it easy for them to see where to click. And, the site needs to be useful enough and look good enough to keep them coming back again and again.

The Exciting Conclusion

So keep all of this in mind – your search engine plan might actually be working. Take the lesson of patience to heart and focus on great content for your customers so when the hits start coming, they have a reason to stay. Keep refining your keywords – this is a never ending process in a world of constant change. And experiment where appropriate - test and tweak different ideas to ensure buying ratios improve over time. Remember, the goal here is not just driving traffic, it’s converting hits to sales.

As with all things of importance, there are a few difficult choices that must be made during the process of getting a website up and running. The first decision that should be made about your website is whether you should have it custom designed and developed or if you should use a website template.

Full disclosure: I am the owner of a pretty darn good web firm so take my comments in stride. I only speak the truth though.

Templates Aren’t All Bad

What is a template? Templates are pre-designed and pre-built websites that you can find on many a site. They range from "I wouldn’t use that if you paid me" to "Wow — that is one awesome site".

They would make a perfect choice for those who want a website based more around functionality without all the bells and whistles of a custom design. They are usually much less expensive than sites built by a web designer. However, the low price does not mean that style is out of the question. There are literally endless numbers of templates to choose from and you’re sure to find one that suits your needs and taste after a bit of looking. With template designs, what you see is what you get; there is not much room for flexibility.

Using templates can also save a chunk of time. There’s no day dreaming and brainstorming with a hired designer, just a site that’s ready to be slightly edited. All that you have to do is find a design that you like and fill in the desired content, then put it up on the web for everyone to see.

Though there are many useful benefits to using templates, it’s not the right choice for everyone. One notable downfall of using pre-made layouts is that it is entirely possible that another person is using the same design. Any number of people are allowed to buy and use the same template, that is unless the “unique” price is paid, which is then getting into the realm of what a web designer would charge in the first place. Another thing to be wary of when deciding to use a template is the amount of website knowledge you may have. If you’re limited on the subject, you may have a tough time setting up and maintaining the site, let alone trying to get search engines to pick it up so others will find it.

Those who want a very specific design for their website are bound to be disappointed, since they probably won’t find exactly what they are looking for.

Just Hire a Designer

Another choice to keep in mind when trying to get a website running is to hire a web designer or a firm such as us. We specialize in designing, coding, and writing content for our clients’ websites. A good designer can really give your website a cutting edge that you don’t usually see with templates. This is a great option for those who want an elaborate, impressive design that won’t be seen anywhere else. A lot of designers have a good grasp on how the Web works and making good impressions on those who visit their sites.

They are also skilled at taking your specific requests and making them into a functional, user-friendly system that is designed to attract attention from search engines. Web designers are beneficial to those who expect their website budget to grow, since they are usually happy to add new sections, pages, graphics, and more later on. Hiring a professional also comes in handy for those who don’t exactly understand websites. Web designers will deal with getting the website up and offer maintenance services if something were to go wrong.

Hiring a designer can be a great option for some people, but a few things should be taken into consideration before making the decision. The most obvious con to having a designer build a customized website for you is the price. Initially, a designer puts a larger dent in the bank than a template, but whipping that cheap template into shape is going to require lots of patience and a bit more cash than anticipated.

If you have a specific image in mind, be sure the designers you speak with have a portfolio showcasing the design style you’re looking for. That will definitely get you started on the right foot.

If you are looking for a designer, you must have knowledge on how to find a skilled professional who can be trusted with such an important project. Failing to do so would likely result in a major loss and a major headache. Don’t like the samples in our portfolio? Check out Sortfolio.com for a rather large listing of designers across the country. Those with a very specific design in mind should understand that a good designer will argue any requests that could leave a bad impression on the site’s visitors, which will benefit their clients in the long run.

The moral of the story: if you have a very limited budget and are not very concerned about your brand, go for the template. If you have some money to spend and you want to supply your visitors with an experience unique to your brand, hire us or find another firm that will make you happy. ]]> tag:onwired.com,2010:blog/1.489 2010-06-17T21:33:00Z 2010-09-13T16:20:31Z Megan http://onwired.com Are you ready for the third round of the Wireframe Madness? If you missed the first or second round check them out here: First Round & Second Round.

The last round was a blow out between Cacoo and Mockflow. Mockflow easily took the cake. This week things may get ugly between Creately and Lovely Charts. Check out the score below.

Let’s do this.

Lovely Charts

The Lovely Charts Rundown:

Free Templates: 1

Design: Interface 7/10

Tools/Components: 6/10

Sharing: Export as PNG or JPG

Pros:

• Sitemap and Flowchart abilities along with Wireframes
• Has built in grid feature
• Arrange and Align feature
• Color dropper tool
• Built in Connection tool for user flow diagrams

Cons:

• No page borders.
• Some tools appear cartoony, some tools are irrelevant
• Cannot share with a URL. Only exports to PNG or JPG.
• Very limited on Wireframe tools
• Limited to One free page.

Creately

The Creately Rundown:

Free Templates: Unlimited

Design: Slightly cluttered interface 7/10

Tools/Components: 7/10

Sharing: Share through email, Export — JPG, PNG, PDF

Pros:

• Has a contact toolbar that connects items easily
• Very nice social media icon set
• Multiple template sets to choose from
• Collaborate with Two people in Free version
• Unlimited free templates
• Has page borders

Cons:

• Have to load web tools, not automatically in the library
• Cluttered interface
• When testing I got an error and lost my recent work

Lovely Charts vs. Creately — Final Score.

This was a close race, but all-in-all Creately takes the gold. Lovely charts would have had more leverage if it offered more free templates — one template just doesn’t cut it, not even for sampling. Creately stepped up the game with it’s toolsets and templates, although that error message and losing work definitely gives me some cause for concern.

There we have it folks: another tight race ends, and another one bites the dust. We still have three more battles to go until the final face-off, so stay tuned!

Working with data in Photoshop (CS3+) is probably not something you’ve thought much about. In fact, I’ve only ever run into one case where using datasets and variables in Photoshop made sense to me, but once you know how to use them, you’re bound to find more and more reasons to use them.

This approach is a timesaver regardless of the amount of data you might have, but if you’ve only got a few lines of data to work with, creating each PSD by hand might save time compared to this method.

Practical Applications:

• Mailing labels
• Custom postcards, flyers, etc.
• Creating ordered price or number-based images
• And so on…

First, we need some data to work with. For this example, I’ve created a simple list of names and addresses in Google Docs. The first cell of each column is important. We’ll use these names when we define variables to work with in Photoshop later on. Once my spreadsheet is ready, I export the file as a CSV.

Once we have our data, we’ll need to create something in Photoshop that can take advantage of it. With a list of names and addresses we could create custom envelopes, postcards, name badges, you name it. For this example, we’re going to keep it simple and create a Galactic Empire email signature graphic/mailing label sort of thingy:

In the above screenshot you can see I’ve created a pretty basic PSD with the Galactic Empire Logo (Layer 1), five text layers and a plain white background layer. Now comes the fun part. Go to Image > Variables > Define. Select Name from the Layer dropdown.

We need to make sure that each column of data we have in our spreadsheet coincides with a variable. Select a Layer from the layer dropdown (such as Name). Then check the checkbox next to Text Replacement and set the name to Name, so it’ll match the column name from our spreadsheet. Continue doing this for each column/layer until finished.

Click the import button and it’ll open an Import Data Set window. Select the CSV file you’ve created. Make sure the checkboxes are checked. You’ll also want to make sure that you’ve already created your variable associations and the names match your column headings in the CSV. If they don’t match you WILL get errors.

You’ll now be able to select from the various Data Sets you’ve created and your PSD will get updated with the results. Once you click OK, save your document.

Now we’re turn each Data Set into its own PSD. Do this by going to File > Export > Data Sets as Files.

Select a folder for output. Set your naming convention. Click OK. In a matter of seconds you’ll have PSDs for every single data set.

Once you have a folder full of PSDs, your best bet would be to create an action that Saves for Web and then run a batch process that applies the action to each file. I’ll cover that in my next post.

OnWired HQ infiltrated. Enemy agent escaped with iPad. Your objective: locate agent and recover device.

First operative to complete mission will receive iPad.

Intel on enemy agent’s whereabouts to be distributed via Twitter. Follow @onwired to be kept apprised.

The search has begun. If you’ve figured something out, share what you know.

The second round of the Wireframe Tourney is about to begin. If you missed the first round, STOP right now, and go read it.

As I’ve already mentioned, each app will be scrutinized and ranked on “free-ness”, interface design, tool set, and other miscellaneous pros and cons, two at a time. This weeks battle is between Cacoo and Mockflow. Only one app will reign superior and move on to the next bracket.

Are you ready to rumble?

Cacoo

The Cacoo Rundown:

Free Templates: Unlimited

Design: Disney-like Interface 6/10

Tools/Components: 6/10

Sharing: Co-edit, Public URLs, Export — PNG

Pros:

• Has Sitemap and Flowchart abilities as well as Wireframes
• Co-editing Feature
• Can chat with other Cacoo users
• Has separate text, image, and line tools that aren’t pre-formatted.
• Can copy and paste styles

Cons:

• Can only export as PNG
• Page template is very open, no page borders.
• Tools are cluttered with useless icons like smiley faces and office layout icons?…
• Interface seems childish — not very professional
• Wireframe ability seems like an afterthought

Mockflow

The Mockflow Rundown:

Free Templates: 4

Design: Dark, clean interface 8/10

Tools/Components: 9/10

Sharing: Private setting, Public URLs, Export — PNG, PPT, PDF

Pros:

• Has Sitemap and Flowchart abilities as well as Wireframes
• Mockstore: user shared tool imports (ipad and iphone components)
• Invite co-editors, live chat with co-editors
• Tool set: Social, payment, security icons.
• Simple clean interface. Very professional.
• Templating and duplication function
• Auto sitemap creation
• Built-in 960 grid!
• Paste-in-place functionality, and grouping!

Cons:

• Not very free, but $4.91 a month isn’t bad.
• Page template is very open, wish page borders were more prominent

Mockflow vs. Cacoo — Final Score.

Honestly, this wasn’t much of a competition. Mockflow blew Cacoo out of the water. Cacoo does have collaboration tools like co-editing and chat, but Mockflow just makes Cacoo look like a toy. One big set back to Mockflow is that it only offers 4 page templates for free. $4.91 is a strange price, but come on, that’s cheap for all that Mockflow offers: Seemingly endless templates and components, 960 grid, private and public sharing…

Game two down, Cacoo was taken to the slaughter house by Mockflow. Tune in next time for the Lovely Charts and Creately showdown! ]]> tag:onwired.com,2010:blog/1.482 2010-05-17T15:43:23Z 2012-04-25T01:34:25Z Greg Williams http://onwired.com Today, I want to talk about man hours, the act of creation, and the big bang theory. But I’ll only talk about man hours.

Many are not aware of the difference between an hour, a man hour, and a woman hour. So, let’s address that first.

An HOUR is a collection of 60 minutes. Usually consecutive. Actually, always consecutive, and this is important as you will later see. Henceforth I dub thee: “Clock Hours.”

A MAN hour is an hour filled with grunts on a sofa, one hand half down the pants and a beer in the other, lots of belching, and screaming aimlessly at the TV when the ref totally misses a call. “Oh C’MON REF!! BAD CALL!!…” usually followed by unprintable expletives.

A WOMAN hour is only slightly less known. This can be easily consumed going to get ready for a night out on the town — like ballet for example (a direct affront to the aforementioned man). Now, I don’t really know exactly what goes on in there for an hour, but I do know she comes out looking fantastic, so I try not to complain. Inside every woman is an artist. It’s just that some take a little longer to express themselves.

A Terrible Compromise

This whole confusion between man and woman hours caused us to come up with a new term to describe “a unit of production equal to the work one person can produce in an hour.” But we don’t call it work hour or anything useful and understandable. We maintain a gender neutral tone, and we call it a “Person Hour.” This is somehow less offensive than “Man Hour.” We originally didn’t go with “Woman Hour” because it was too long to say. Man Hour was much more efficient (taking 33% less time to grunt). Now, we say “Person Hour” which is even worse.

All that said, and on a more serious note, I’m going to say “Work Hour”, which means “Man Hour”, “Person Hour”, and “A unit of production equal to the work one person can produce in an hour.” “Work Hour” — it means what is says, and it says it in 33% less time…

What is a Work Hour?

So, what is a work hour? What does it mean to say we spent 3 work hours on a work package? What does it mean when we estimate “40 Hours of Project Management?”

Whenever we spend time working on a project, we are using people’s time to achieve a goal. In Project Management, we have a project with an overall goal that we break down into smaller goals called “Work Packages” and then those are broken down into even smaller goals called “Tasks” and “Milestones”. Tasks each have a certain amount of time it takes to complete them. Milestones are a beautiful momentous occasion worthy of celebration… like “Internal Quality Check Sign-Off.” See? Easily a beer right there.

Bring it Home, G.

Let’s look at a typical design review meeting. After our designer has spent several creative hours (“Creative Hour” is a topic for a different day) working up initial design mockups, we review them internally to ensure they meet our own high standards and our client’s expectations. Let’s say there are 3 different designs, and 2 levels (home page and secondary page). That’s 6 designs that must be reviewed. Participating in this meeting are the designer(s), the project manager, and the Creative Director. We’ll assume only 3 people for now, but for larger projects we frequently have more than one designer to ensure we capture different perspectives. If each design takes 15 minutes to review, critique, make notes on, and make suggestions for improvement (and this is a conservative average), then we have absorbed 1.5 Clock Hours out of our 24 hour day. However, that is not the cost to the company. The actual cost of that meeting is “Clock Hours” X “Number of People Working.” Therefore, in this one meeting that lasted 1.5 Clock Hours, there are actually 4.5 Work Hours consumed.

That’s right — 4.5 Work Hours to review 6 different designs. So, if we keep numbers simple and value $100/hr per person’s time, that one meeting to review 3 different design templates 2 levels deep cost $450.

This same thing happens in your own company. Even if you aren’t calculating it, it’s happening.

Another Almost Laughable Example. Almost.

I worked for a Global Fortune 500 company prior to this. I was in meetings ALL. THE. TIME. Well, one of those times involved the review of an internal “productivity message” with the senior executive team. There were 3 guys all getting paid north of $500,000, CEO over $800,000 (these are all “AT LEAST” figures), then 7 of us with one person presenting. Each of us made 6 figures. This meeting lasted an hour. Obviously, the hourly rate is much higher in this case, especially considering all the other massive expenses (facilities, plush offices, insurance, telepresence and other high end technology). Let’s be nice and make the average rate about $300. It was probably closer to $400 including all other supporting expenses. Now, let’s discuss the actual cost of just one 1 Clock Hour meeting.

10 people X 1 Clock Hour = 10 Work Hours. 10 Work Hours X $300/hr = $3000.

• Meeting on “Mundane Topic”: $3000.
• Full realization that corporate life was draining my soul? > 6 years.
• Freedom from bondage? Priceless.

So when we say 40 hours of Project Management or 120 Hours of Development, you know it’s not one person sitting at a desk happily twiddling their thumbs. They are busy coordinating with many other people, sometimes more than 5 at once, and this is time that adds up very quickly.

So always remember: no company will ever quote you project cost based on Clock Time; it’s always based on Work Time (or Value). And if you are lucky enough to be a defense contractor working with the US government, well… you can also include materials like a $20,000 Pentel mechanical pencil. Hey relax — it needed special security clearance! (And it’s just taxpayer money anyway).

Now, make some room on the couch. The Stanley Cup’s on and I’ve got plenty to be screaming about. And right now, it’s not the refs…