Category Archives: ONLINE PROJECTS

February 9, 2010 – 1:42 am

Introducing The Web Farm

Hi. I know I’ve been quiet for a while, but I’ve been working on somehing BIG. It’s this, my new business: The Web Farm. Yes, in addition to LimeRed Studio… that’s still here!

Keidra Chaney and I launched The Web Farm last month. We’re teaching the tools the big guys have had access to for a while now—things like web analytics, user testing, social media planning, and more.

Here’s our pitch: http://www.thewebfarmers.com/what-we-do/

We’re doing things like: giving 2-hour after work trainings on web analytics, home page redesigns, landing page testing and social media metrics. We’re giving a Saturday workshop soon on website planning, too. And guess what? It’s NOT EXPENSIVE! And the tools are mostly free and available for you to start using right now.

The problem is: no one has time to dig around and find the documentation to learn the stuff. And there’s a lot of planning that needs to happen first. Well, good thing Keidra and I have been doing that very thing for years now and we’re ready to teach you so YOU have the keys to your own site. And you know how to use the tools well.

So get ready. This is going to be HUGE.

Oh, and please come to our next After Work Special. It’s only $20 and there will be lots of wine.

By Emily | Also posted in EVERYTHING ELSE | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)
December 28, 2009 – 10:51 pm

Sports & Spirit Signs Ecommerce website is live

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Did you know LimeRed Studio can set up Ecommerce websites? Well, we can. Thanks to the wild west of online software development, we have plenty of options to chose from. And some of them are well-priced and give you tons of options, like order tracking, inventory management, newsletter subscriptions, custom coupons and so much more.

You know: this is more than graphic design, folks. You have to get eyebrow-deep in someone’s business to be able to do this right. We ran into questions ranging from how to accept payment, whether to use FedEx, UPS or USPS, how to deal with shipping, to whether or not to collect sales tax. Luckily, I’ve done these things before and helped many a small business get the ball running.

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The basic rules to designing for e-commerce are:

1. Make it totally intuitive. You shop online all the time and probably have two or three favorite sites. Copy those. They work.

2. REMOVE ALL OBSTACLES. The minute people have to think to find what they want (unless they really want it) you run the risk of losing them. I’m not saying people are dumb, but you are competing with everyone for the same dollars. So get it right.

3. Get rid of all of your extra junk. Each page should have ONE MISSION: Sell something on one page, get them to sign up for something on another page. if you need to do more things, make more pages! You can add more elements, sure, but you wouldn’t want to snowboard down the whole mountain before you learned how to navigate the bunny hill. It’s dangerous.

I designed and set up this site with some help from my ever-amazing developer, Nathan. (Thanks!)

Let you area schools know about this terrific fundraising opportunity or just buy a sign for yourself. It’s so cute. And there are signs for the nerds, too. I was on the yearbook staff in highschool and I would have totally stuck a yearbook sign in my front yard!

This site is a work in progress. They are making new signs all the time and will be adding more details about school fundraising opportunities, so check back soon.

By Emily | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (0)
November 19, 2009 – 12:45 am

Wealth Strategist Partners website is live!

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Go check out Wealth Strategist Partner’s new site.

Here’s how this site came to be:
 I was asked to redesign Wealth Strategist Partner’s site to make it less about their book, Wealth, and more about their core business—consulting, courses and recommended readings. Great, I thought: easy-peasy. But let’s all remember that good sites begin with good content. And a pretty site without intuitive architecture and relevant, easily-accessed content is a major waste of money. Right? Right.

Conclusion: This site needed a complete overhaul.

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A redesign is rarely a mere reskinning. What almost always needs to happen is: re-imagination of content and how USERS will access and use the site. Here’s what we did to reach this goal, while keeping the site’s users needs in the front of our brains at all times:

  1. We created a huge wireframe document that outline the content on each page, where it came from and where it would go if clicked. (see above)
  2. We remapped the structure of the site so the content would make sense in groups.
  3. We added landing pages, places for timely content, audio, video, lists of outside sources and more.
  4. We worked with an SEO specialist to gather keyword research, suggest page descriptions and titles, and review all of the copy for optimization.
  5. Then we developed the site.

And launched it today!

Oh, and we applied the existing branding graphics to the page designs with some small updates and upgrades. See? Not a whole lot of actual design work here. This project was mostly about content and usability. Design helps to visually communicate that content. Design is incredibly important to create a brand image, to portray a personality, to cue content, etc. but it only supports the overall mission: to communicate the company’s messages.

Now, LimeRed Studio and friends are going to develop a Spanish language version of the site, add some premium member content and rejigger a little of the content and how it displays. All in all, this was a HUGE accomplishment for us! We love this client and many many many thanks to Nathan Hiemstra, my hugely talented developer.

More to come soon; we have some big projects underway right now.

By Emily | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)
August 25, 2009 – 7:57 am

PoCampo website is UP and awesome

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People! These bags are so terrific! Check out (below) how exceptionally cute mine is on my bike. Really, this is the new official transportation of LimeRed Studio. It just WORKS. PoCampo just WORKS.

Thanks to the talented Nathan Hiemstra, the fabulous developer who put this site together. Check this: these bike bags are made in Chicago, by two ladies (Emily & Maria) in Chicago. I did the logo, other ID stuff and the logo… in Chicago. Nathan? Chicago. Go us. 

http://pocampo.com/

So go buy one of these bags. Really. If you are into biking at all, it's refreshing to park your bike and carry around this cute little number instead of some boy-centric sporty thing. Case study: I put on a skirt and rode my bike to the MegaApplianceStore, managed not to get hit my oblivious drivers, I successfully bungeed my new coffeemaker to my bike and rode it home. I'm tough, but it's fun to look cute too.

And can you say lower carbon footprint? I can. 

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By Emily | Also posted in IDENTITY SYSTEMS | Tagged , , | Comments (0)
August 3, 2009 – 7:40 am

Good Work People

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Here’s a great new blog from my friend Elliot Greenberger called Good Work People. I know about it because I designed the logo, isn’t it neat? Here’s an actual quote from Elliot during our back-and-forth on the logo design (which was minimal, by the way): “OK, so…you’re really smart. As you said, you knew exactly what I wanted. I had in my mind three icons representing each of the words, and you made it happen. I like the pie concept, too, very smart, but I think the icons are more with the playful feel of the brand.”

More about the blog from Elliot:

Who are goodworkpeople? They’re taking a social twist on a traditional business model.  They’re thinking actively about the impact of what they do everyday. They’re helping business change the world—and helping the world change business. We’re going to be profiling some of the most exciting projects in the world of social enterprise. These projects will make you think differently about the business of social impact. If we’re lucky, you might even be inspired.

Do you know any goodworkpeople? Share your story!

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By Emily | Also posted in IDENTITY SYSTEMS | Comments (0)