With haskell classes and three different data types (think Java interfaces)

-- define the shape data types
data Triangle = Triangle
data Square = Square
data Octagon = Octagon

class Shape s where
  sides :: s -> Integer

instance Shape Triangle where
  sides _ = 3

instance Shape Square where
  sides _ = 4

instance Shape Octagon where
  sides _ = 8

GHCi output

*Main> sides Triangle
3
*Main> sides Square
4
*Main> sides Octagon
8

With one haskell datatype and runtime pattern matching (think erlang or “parametric polymorphism”)

-- define the instances of shape
data Shape =
  Triangle |
  Square |
  Octagon

sides Triangle = 3
sides Square = 4
sides Octagon = 8

GHCi output

*Main> sides Triangle
3
*Main> sides Square
4
*Main> sides Octagon
8

Which do you like better?

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I am sure that there are people out there that think that web design is left up to those with creative minds, artists, who have the chance to express their voice with a website to the entire world. But in reality there is a lot more that goes into it, or so we hope. Now I am not saying that anyone could design a website, nothing could be further from the truth. There are a lot questions that must be answered before you can design a site successfully.

Take a moment and think about your favorite website… what do you like about it? Is it the colors? Or a cool looking logo? Is it the user interface? (how easy it is to navigate through the website) Or does it have nothing to do with the look, is it all about the content?

Now take another moment and think about the worst website you have come across… what was it that made you cringe when you arrived? Was there music playing? Did it have banners flashing or moving objects? Was it over crowded with no rhyme or reason to the information? Was it impossible to find the information that you came to the website for?

This happens to so many web users, they go onto a website looking for something specific and they end up leaving after ten seconds because they cannot stand the music or the waving flag in the corner. As anyone can attest to, distractions are easy to come by and makes us move on even faster.

You do not need to have a background in design, art, or web design to understand how the fundamentals of a website should work. You do however need to have background in those things plus an understanding of the fundamentals of consumers who surf the web to make a good looking website with a great user interface. People always want the best of both worlds: they want websites to look amazing, and they also want them to be easy to navigate and the information readily available with little effort to find it.

Being in the web development world it is simple to pick up on the latest trends of website production. These days a website needs to be eye catching without all those silly distractions like music and flying objects. The website also needs to look advanced for it’s time. People need to be able to find the navigation easy to maneuver through and whatever information they are looking for can only be less than two clicks away. Anything longer than two clicks will make your website visitor go bye-bye.

Take my test: go to three of you favorite websites and see if they have the above criteria, and go to three websites you hate the most and find out what they are missing. Tell me what you find.

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Let’s start with design, when was your site developed? How is the user interface? (by user interface I mean how easy it is to navigate through the site and find what you are looking for) Would you say that it has a modern look or can you tell what year it was made. You should be asking yourself these questions all the time. With the age of the internet you have to be constantly be upgrading your look. I am not saying that you need to redo your website every year but you need to change with the tides. Think about your favorite websites, is your site up to par with their design? Not only are you up to par with design but is it easy to get the information you are providing? Are you sending a clear message?

I have been reading lots of marketing books lately and they are all saying the same thing. Consumers have changed the way they buy things. Push marketing is no longer effective, we cannot tell our customers to buy our product because they need it, we need to use the pull method. The pull method is to draw the customer in with information, and lots of it. Think about yourself as a consumer for a second, when you decide to buy something now, like a digital camera, do you just go to your local electronics store and buy the first one on sale or do you research all of the latest trends and then you research who has the best deal, not just in town, but on the web. Well this is what everyone is doing. Consumers want to look for the information on what they are buying and they want to be able to get the information at any time. So what should your site do? It should draw people in with readily available and easily accessible information. When they go to your site they should be able to find what they are looking for in two clicks of a mouse. If the information is further than that they will move onto the next site. Same thing goes for look and feel of your site. If they do not like the way it looks than they will also move onto the next one. Isn’t it amazing how many things you have to think of when developing you website (this is why there are professionals, this is what they know so you don’t have to!)

The last thing that has impact on people coming to your site is finding you on the web. This subject could take pages and pages to talk about, but I will be brief. People need to be able to get to your site easily and fast. Here are some things to think about: what kind of domain name do I have? Is it long, or confusing? Is it hard to spell? What do I talk about on my homepage? Do I have any content on my homepage? Have you searched for yourself through a search engine like google or yahoo? What page were you on? These are just a few of the things to think about.

People do not realize all the different things that account for their ranking on a search engine. This type of marketing is called SEO, or search engine optimization, and the whole point of SEO is to get your site on the first page of the search, because as we all know, no one really moves on to the second page. We are talking prime real estate here people!

Since SEO is such an extensive subject and even I am yet to have a full grip on it, I will wait to expand until next time.

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Bakersfield is a fairly old community, with “home-town” feelings and outlooks. When it comes to web, they might be quick to think of spider webs more than the “world wide web”. This scared me a little when it came to having to talk to Bakersfield business’ about the internet and what the web can do for their business. I thought to myself, how am I supposed to persuade these people that a website can do wonders for their business and reputation when over 50% did not even know how to get onto the internet let alone that business’ had websites. So out came a new strategy, before we can get folks to see the value of a website they need to understand the “world wide web” and what it’s capabilities are. That is what we set out to do, show people what the web means and then show them how to use it to their advantage.

We showed business’ that there is a whole new marketing strategy out there, and that if they wanted to bring in new generations of buyers to come that they were going to have to jump on the wagon. See times are changing and the new generation of buyers no longer look to that dusty ‘ol phone book in the closet to find take-out or a new doctor, they go to the internet. They have found new ways to find the information they need to buy what they want. The main reason that the internet is more appealing than that phone book is because it is fast, easy, and always there and up-to-date. And for the new generations if it is easier and faster why would you use anything else? They are using their old phone books for door stoppers or “strong man” challenges in their backyard, one thing we know for sure is that they are not using them for information.

Okay so let’s say that I am an old business in Bakersfield, I have made my place in this town by putting in hard work, selling a good quality product, and by creating a good reputation, what is a website going to do for me? Well ask yourself some questions: What is my customer base? Do I have mostly new customers or old loyal ones? How did my customers come to hear about me? How can I get new customers in, and how can I target a larger area? All of these questions can be answered with a website. Let’s examine how by answering these questions…

Let’s define our business for answering purposes. We are a dog boutique, that specializes in toys for all different kinds of dogs, dog clothing, and custom dog tags.

So what is my customer base now: any dog owner (in town, or has heard of my company before) What could it be with a website: ANYONE

Most of my customers are old, who have come here before, I only get new customers from advertising (local TV/Newspaper), word of mouth or walk-ins. Potentially with a website most of your customers could be new because of the exposure on the internet. You are not just getting the greater Bakersfield area with your TV and newspaper ads. You are getting anyone and everyone is has access to the internet.

My customers mostly have heard of me through a friend or some kind of referral, I do get some people who have seen my commercial or saw my ad in the paper. Like I said previously with a website now anyone can find you or hear about you, what larger target area could you get than that.

Now I have shown you some obvious reasons why and how a website can help your business. It’s pretty easy and painless, you just need to do a little homework and find a web design or development company that knows what they are doing and has your best interest at heart. There is a next step, once you have a website for your business, you then need the knowledge to know: is it doing anything for your business, am I sending the right message, ARE PEOPLE FINDING ME?

This last question about “are people finding me?” is probably the most important and this leads into Web Marketing, which I will talk about in my next blog. I also want to talk about the world of web design and what is out there.

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Srey, Paul, and Me

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So, considering every web master in the world is not going to jump up and edit all of those pages with phone numbers. It would seem possible that maybe a grease monkey script would be able to recognize phone numbers and turn them into callto: links. Well someone has all ready created this. Callto Linkify (for Skype)

Gotta love the internet. Thanks to Aaron Boodman (you have saved me soo much time!) for Grease Monkey and Boris Yim for this handy Skype-ification!

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