First. Speed is the greatest Keanu Reeves movie ever.

Second. I'm not going to write about how to program a fast site. I am going to write as a designer and how to think when you are crafting that website masterpiece.

I know what you're thinking. 

"I'm the designer. I don't need to worry about speed. That's up to the programmer."

Wrong. Your design has a dramatic affect on the user experience and site performance.

The good news is that designing a super-cool, yet efficient and fast-loading site, is not that hard.

There are three rules to remember when designing speedy websites:

• Efficiency
• Simplicity
• Size

Let's break these three rules down further.

Efficiency (in general describes the extent to which time or effort is well used for the intended task or purpose.)

• Design your navigation using HTML fonts and not graphics
  This is a no-brainer. You'll want to be able to easily update navigation and add/edit pages from your CMS.
• Design as much text as possible to use HTML fonts
  Less images to load means faster load time. Use Typekit or Google Fonts for a wide variety of HTML fonts.
• Reuse design elements
  Avoid redundancy by reusing design elements throughout the site design.

Simplicity (is the state or quality of being simple)

• Don't use images for everything
  Where you can, think of how you use CSS for colors, gradients, curves, etc
• Avoid a lot of drop shadows
  Drop shadows can eat up bytes to render. You can still use them, just don't go crazy. And keep them consistent.
• Use the "Bonsai" method
  Start with a complex design and trim away elements you don't need till you're left with the perfect balance of design and function.

Size (it does matter)

• Optimize your images before uploading to a CMS 
  Don't let the CMS auto-resize your images for you, or use HTML to adjust the sizing. This can really affect the speed of a website.
• If using large images (full browser images) make them as small as possible in Photoshop. Less than 200k is a good rule of thumb.

Remember, It's really not that hard to think about speed when you are designing a website. Keep the rules above in mind as you craft your next website.

Good luck!

Continue reading: The Need for Speed
View all: "Driving More Traffic to Your Website" blog series

When it comes to holidays, one of the toughest for men to shop for is Mother's Day.

The lucky ones only have to shop for their moms. The others have to shop for both their mom AND their wife. Double whammy!

I'm no expert, but one thing I know for sure: 

It's all in the presentation

It's not necessarily about WHAT you give them, but HOW. This is especially true for the wives.

Follow these simple rules:

• B Thoughtful
• B Considerate
• B Sincere
• B Understanding of all the things mothers go through (It's about 10,000% more than what you are already thinking)

I am incredibly thankful for my three homes:

1. My House
   provides my beloved family shelter from the rain, warmth from the cold, coolness from the Texas summer heat and many cherished memories. In a world where so many are without a home, I am thankful for mine.
2. My Job at Balcom
   is my second home. My home away from home. After nearly six years I can't imagine working anywhere else. In a world where so many are without jobs, I am thankful I get to work with so many great people in such a wonderful place.
3. My Church
   keeps me grounded. Each week I can count on my church to remind me what is truly important, and to be the best person I can be. When I am there I am at home with God. In a world with so much religious strife, remember all you have to do is walk into your local church and feel welcome. No matter what your religious beliefs are, you can always find solace in your local church, syangogue, mosque or temple. 

When anyone thinks of baseball they inevitably think of Major League Baseball teams like the Texas Rangers, Minnesota Twins and Boston Red Sox (certain MLB teams not mentioned for good reason - you know who you are).

The MLB team logos are, of course, easily recognizable and memorable. They've been around for many generations. But, have you ever seen the logos of Minor League Baseball? You'd be surprised at how inspiring they can be. They're inventive, fun, and very well executed.

I have scoured the internet for my favorites. ENJOY my gallery of Minor League Baseball team logos!

Before the internet the only way to meet people was to actually, physically (in the real world) talk to them. Can you believe that!? Crazy, I know.

But over the past decade, online dating sites have blown up all over the place: Match.com, eHarmony, Chemistry.com, the new service called okCupid.com and even Christianmingle.com.

I thought I would share a little personal story that might illustrate this idea. It goes a little something like this:

Towards the end of 1998 I heard about this new website Match.com, and figured I'd give it a shot. It was free back then, and I figured what the heck. It was actually pretty cool. It made it easy to find people of similar interests and meet them in person if you were so inclined.

After a few months of being on Match.com I found this one girl that seemed really interesting. She liked Radiohead (big plus) and was into swing dancing (Alright, it was early 1999, and swing dancing was HUGE, promise). We ended up talking on the phone a couple times then decided to meet at a Starbucks (yes, even in 1999 EVERYONE met at Starbucks).

We met in person, and it went great. Instant connection. Lots of fun.

Two years later I married her. Now we have two wonderful children and we've been married for 10+ years.

We don't swing dance anymore (who does?), but we do still like Radiohead.

Love you Kellie!

So, if you're single, give a dating site a try. It works. At least for me it did.

:-)

This video would have made Carl Sagan cry. Truly breathtaking.

Alex Cherney’s award-winning time-lapse video is the result of almost 1.5 years of work and 31 hours of taking images during six nights on the Southern Ocean Coast of Australia.

B Inspired!

NOTE: I would have chosen a different soundtrack :-)

A few months ago I was registering my cars online and noticed something interesting about the new Texas.gov website. They really want you to use the search function. As opposed to sticking it at the top right (as most other sites tend to do), the've decided to make it front and center.

Apart from the goofy picture of the governor perched in the upper right, I really like this "Search as Navigation" concept. It works really well for this site. We all know that government entities can be a little, well, convoluted. What better way to cut through bureaucratic red tape than to simply search for what you want?

Another good example of using Search as Navigation is Home Depot's website. The search bar is not as emphasized as texas.gov, but it does take precedence over the rest of the navigation. That was intentional. Home Depot figures that you know what you are looking for, and they trust in their system to provide the best result based on your search query. They give the power back to the user.

I wonder if there are more ways we could use SEARCH as the main form of navigation for websites. What do you think?

Do you have any other examples of Search as Navigation?

The theme of our Letter B this month, I wish I knew then what I know now, got me thinking about my old design work from UNT. So, I decided to crawl up in the attic and rummage through my boxes of school projects. As I sifted through the work, I couldn't help but smile. Good memories. Hard work. But a thought occurred to me. Will this school work hold up in the real world?

Let's take a look at a few examples. I apologize for the poor photo quality. They were scanned from slides taken many, many years ago.

Dallas School of Music Letterhead - Crazy Angles

The Project:
I really enjoyed working on this project. The identity was a series of instruments that I illustrated and then added sharp angled colors behind them. The whole campaign played off these angles, as you can see in the letterhead. 

The Problem:
Take a close look at the letterhead and you'll see the letter-sized sheet was angled not only at the top, but also on the right. Now, how in the world would anyone be able to run that through a laser printer?! Can you imagine the troubles your client would have? I remember thinking... 

"I could feed the paper from the bottom up ... Yeah! That will work ..."

Uh, no. That won't work.

If I were to work on this project knowing what I know now, I would use color to illustrate the angles. You must always be practical and think about the end user for everything you design.

Unreal Apple Video Game - Tower of Space Eating, Hexagonal, Over-Photoshopped Awesomeness

The Project:
What I remember most about this project is two things. First, how unbelievably hard it was to construct the top of the tower. Second, was the crazy use of Photoshop. The CD for the game sat at the top, laying flat, so when you opened the top you would see the instruction booklet and the CD right away.

The Problem:
What did I do with all the space underneath you might ask? Nothing. Dead space. 

Can you imagine trying to shelve this? It can't stack, that's for sure. You can't even line them up side by side since the top protrudes out. Let's not even mention the lack of consideration for the environment. Of course it was the '90s. Not quite as top of mind as it is today. Al Gore just stepped in as vice president. He probably didn't even think about it back then.

Even though college design can sometimes be "extreme," it teaches you to think outside the box, which is a great lesson. We always knew we'd have to pull back a little when we got to the professional world. Just because it's cool, doesn't mean it's practical.

Quite recently, my mother (a youthful 60-year-old) bought an iPad. I don't even own an iPad, but here's good ol' mom sporting her fancy new gadget.

Mom: "Look at this! Look what it does! Isn't that cool?"

Me: "Yes, mom, I know. It's cool. Why didn't you get me one for my birthday?!"

My mom's new purchase got me thinking ... What other generations own and use iPads and iPhones? What about laptops, PS3s? Luckily the folks at Pew Internet & American Life Project wondered the same thing.

So what does a designer do about this, you ask? Design an infographic, of course!