Month: February 2007

MPH Distributors Warehouse Sale Disappointment

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Today I visited the MPH Distributors Warehouse Sale in Jalan Bersatu, Petaling Jaya. The last time I attended an MPH sale it was hosted at the MBPJ Kelana Jaya sports complex. The sale was great because there wasn’t only great book titles at very very very affordable prices but MPH arranged a special preview day for their loyal customers.

Alas today was a huge disappointment for me at the MPH Distributors Warehouse Sale. The prices were still relatively high, the variety was very minimal, no available parking area and the worst of all no doubt in comparison to the above, I was duped in believing there was an arranged special preview day like the last time.

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10 Tips to Test Web Design

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Gong Xi Fa Cai or happy Chinese new year to everyone celebrating it this year. To Norman who lost a close relative, my condolences and I hope your life will nonetheless continue to prosper as the year of the Fire Pig brings much wealth and luck this year. Now we’ve got the greetings and holiday mood easing off, I’d like to share my 10 tips to test your web design.

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Paint Chinese New Year 2007 Red and Gold

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What a week it’s been. Three days ago it was Valentines Day and now it’s coming to Chinese New Year. The whole town is becoming even more red and everyone is now in a joyous mood for the holidays. The city is going to be a little more quiet and we’re going to be seeing more road mishaps of imbeciles. Oh, the joy!

I don’t know much about tradition but I believe the color red is auspicious because it represents the strength of fire and love. As for gold, needless to say that’s to tell the God of Wealth, “Hey, I’m over here praying for you so show me the money!”.

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Start Your Valentines Day By…

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Donning a yellow raincoat or a yellow suit and start serenading your beloved wherever they may be. Doesn’t sound familiar?

If you’ve seen the new DiGi telco advertisement on TV or heard the radio the past few weeks, DiGi started a ‘yellow’ brand campaign. They’ve got people to dress up in a yellow suit, painted their faces yellow and behave in an exaggerated manner. The song they’ve used was addictive and they’ve made it addictive again in this new age; Ricky Nelson’s I Will Follow You.

So what has DiGi got to do with starting your Valentines Day today?

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Unsubscribe Already, Damnit!

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One of the rules in delivering newsletters is obtaining permission of delivery before delivering. However, there are circumstances involving the delivery before a permission. In this scenario, a newsletter delivered this way is an intrusion of the receivers email inbox.

On the other hand, I believe in bending rules or the principle of give and take. Therefore I don’t mind if someone sends me their newsletter though I might’ve not opt-in for it. But I refuse to accept the inability to unsubscribe from their mailing list. I’m going to share my recent experience so there’s a name in the continuing paragraph.

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Free – Starter – Premium Account

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I was reading up over at Blogging Pro; Gravator 2.0 Adding Paid Premium and it occurred to me what David said was true. Almost every online service that was or great now is charging for every nickel and dime. In other words, even a simple avatar plugin is now starting to charge a minimum amount to its service.

Like David said, USD10 per year might not be much to pay for the service but it’s small little amounts that accumulate and soon you’ll discover spending more in the long run.

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Packaging Strategies for E-Commerce

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First impressions count..a lot. We know how true is this when grocery shopping or buying a random gift for someone whom we like but don’t know them well enough. I highly respect product packaging designers because they not only design for the product but the customer as well. They take into consideration the demand and behavior of the customer.

My friends, if you’re running an e-commerce store or even a small little bulk order in Low Yat forums you’d better have some packaging strategies for your products. This will not only help you bring more business but it gives your customers more confidence in buying from you again and even again.

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I Want to Start a Web Comic

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Other than blogging about web design and development, I’m pretty hooked up on several web comics. As much as I used to love reading Spiderman, Superman, Fone Bone, Garfield and a whole lot of other offline comics, I’ve found several web comics that tickled and made me have anxiety attacks to what happens next.

And the thing about web comics is that it can be started by anyone. I know of an architect turned comic artist and their comic is really really doing well. How many of you haven’t heard or read Megatokyo before? You have no idea what are you seriously missing especially if you like reading romance comedy genres.

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User Testing Your Web Design

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Web design comes in several packages ranging from the out-of-the-box to the fresh-out-of-the-oven. Difference between the two is that ones catered to be visually astounding while not user-friendly and the other is highly user-friendly while strikes balance between its aesthetic value. However, I’m not saying that out-of-the-box or fresh-out-of-the-oven web design can’t be a total failure as well.

So what’s one of the best ways to find out if you have succeeded? It’s called user testing. While very uncommon to many Malaysia agencies and teams, user testing is all about…your users.

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New Breed of Web Agency

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I’m not sure if many web agencies, designers, developers and freelancers noticed this but there’s a new breed of web agencies today. Traditionally (old school and conservative) in Malaysia, a web agency set up here would take on projects from all walks of the Internet. They tell customers we service web design and development from small 1 product businesses to large corporations with branches all over Malaysia.

Well, it looks like this path is about to change soon. The agencies are branching out from the tree and becoming more specialized. They’re targeting niche markets and have become really professionals in that area.

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