As Designers in this thriving tech world – things are moving super fast. Technology and expectations are growing exponentially (its true!). So most of us feel the need to rise to this occasion and for good reason! So today we are discussing a few things that can help keep an online design project from riding off the rails.
Use The Best Internet Connection & Security
What Can You Do When You Have No Internet Connection?
Typically not something that you think of right off the bat but its one of the most important parts of our tool roster! Internet Connection! From having the latest modem and router to upgrading to top-notch software, and everything in between. However, using these items to your advantage will only work with a fast connection and reliable internet. Are you moving too slow?
When you do not have proper security or a good DSL connection, you will find that there will be problems keeping your projects going. Every time there is an issue with your internet connectivity, you end up being slowed down twice as much as the amount of time that your internet connection is down. When you have security issues, your new ideas can be hacked and leaked to the public before you are ready to get them going. This means that you need help from a provider and security system that will keep you on the right path.
When choosing the best broadband ISP, you need to remember that most high-speed internet providers all look very similar. However, all the services that look the same are essentially different in many ways. Each one offers different packages with different speed levels that are tailored to your work and your design needs. Choose the cable provider that offers you the most options for your connection. When you can get help from a provider with the specific kind of work you do, you will find that the best provider can give you a DSL connection that perfectly suits your business and the nature of your work.
When you choose security protocols, choose the programming that makes the most sense to you. There is nothing more confusing than purchasing security software that sounds great but you have no idea how to use. Get a security program that will work for you without being confusing. You will have many more options when you know how to get around the software, and you will feel as though you got your money’s worth. As you work on your projects, remember that you can change your DSL plan or security settings whenever you want. All this takes is a little bit of communication with the provider or with the company that wrote your security program.
Use The Right Tools
8 Fast and Furious Tools to speed up your CSS and HTML Coding Time
You always have to make sure you are using the right tools and that they are up to date. It could take a long time to build a house using only a screw driver and duct tape, right? (although duct tape is awesome) The same is true in Web Design haha. Before each project I typically do a little research into the process of what I am actually trying to achieve also just to make sure the old way I was doing it, is still the newest, fastest, and best way to do it.
Make Sure You Are Doing It Right.
How to Speed Up Your Prototyping Process
I touched on this a little in the last point, but if you are doing something the wrong way fundamentally from the start, you are going to have a bad time lol. Typically if you are doing something that should be easy, and its hard, and taking forever – again you are probably doing it wrong. Always take time to learn things the right way and it will save you a lot of trouble up front and down the road. Always research whatever it is you are doing to make sure you are doing it the most efficient way possible before you waste your time messing it up for a while. Also knowing the fundamentals (especially true with HTML and CSS) then you will be able to just power through it quickly without having to rely to much on an outside resource – you just “Know” it so you can easily crank out the goodness and finish that project ;). Doesn’t hurt to familiarize yourself with some ‘techniques’ or ‘shortcuts’ into being productive as well – that will help you shave some minutes or even hours off of a project just by being your super efficient self.
Make Sure Your Site (or Clients Site) Is Fast
The Ultimate Guide to Speed Up Your Website
Perhaps your site (or your clients site) is the bottleneck in your project – it has happened to me before on a client site! Choosing the right web hosting is crucial when it comes to your websites speed (although there are some other factors you can tweak to get some speed, tips in that image link mentioned above) hosting will make or break your site. I had a client using Godaddy with wordpress and updating the most trivial things took ages because I had to wait for the server to churn for minutes on each page load, so enough was enough! I moved the site to a better host like Namecheap and optimized it and voila, time saved for everyone. So be sure your website (or whatever site your working on) is loading fast and snappy especially if you are using a web based CMS (like joomla or wordpress) that requires the site to respond to get your work done! So Speed it up and it will speed you up! Also if your design project requires your own hosting, make sure that you have hosting that can keep it fast for your viewers, and won’t crash on them – then no one would get to see all your hard work!
Use these items to your advantage to keep productivity up on your online projects. When you have the right options, you will find that you can get much more work done than if you were to simply sit down at the computer and try to start working.
