Web development

---

Sites that make you go… hmmmmm

posted by Public Relations

We’ve been super busy here at thunder::tech the last few weeks, and we’re excited to announce the launch of five client websites! Please click the links below to see some of our work.

We always love to hear feedback, so feel free to tell us what you think in the comment section below.

Greater Cleveland Sports Commission
When challenged to make an award-winning site, our Design team stepped it up and delivered a unique design that keeps users engaged, while still delivering an easy-to-navigate site. The Development team took on the task of determining how to take a visually intensive site and implement it in a way that kept the user experience clean and quick. The site will serve as an information hub for everyone looking to bring an event to the Greater Cleveland area.

A.C. Milan Junior Camp
The Milan Junior Camp (MJC) website was an exercise of coloring inside the lines (which is sometimes a challenge!). A.C. Milan’s global brand standards meant we had a very fine line to explore between what was required and where we could add our own thumbprints. The main function of the site is to allow users to sign up and pay for their children to attend MJC anywhere in North America. They have the intent of growing to a global and multi-lingual site in the near future.
Read More...

How does a Web page work? The role browsers play in the way your page looks and functions

posted by Development

Websites may be programs in a sense, but they don't run directly on your computer the way a program like Microsoft Word or Windows Media Player does. Not only does the Web browser visually contain the page on your screen, but it’s responsible for receiving and following the instructions that define the Web page. This can cause certain features to become unavailable, depending on the version of the Web browser.

Newer Web development language standards such as HTML5 and CSS3 define an abundance of new and impressive instructions that the browser can follow. However, browser versions released prior to the establishment of these standards won't follow these instructions.

Additionally, determining which instructions from a standard actually make it into the browser software is at the discretion of the browser's developer (such as Apple, Google, Microsoft or Mozilla). As a result, the implementation sometimes won't completely conform to the original specifications, causing differences in interpreting these instructions.

A graphical, highly customized website can only be presented as perfectly as the browser that interprets and renders it. Rather than an image, which is a collection of pixels, a Web page is a collection of elements. An element can be an image, a piece of text, an interactive control such as a text field that permits responses to be entered into a form, or a container that helps determine the page's visual layout and structure.

Most of the instruction interpretation discrepancies between browsers (and legitimate browser bugs) fall under the category of how to visually style and determine the behavior of these elements.
Read More...

Why choose integrated video?

posted by Video

Video production has changed drastically since the early days of film and video. The cost of equipment has dropped exponentially and today, you can do more complex editing on an iPhone than you could with a linear editing system in the 1980s that cost thousands of dollars.

When it comes to video production, you have many choices. You can buy an inexpensive camera and easy-to-use editing software and do it yourself, you can hire a video production company or you can choose an integrated marketing agency.

The DIY solution may be the most economical because you can do it in-house, but if it comes at the sacrifice of production quality, it may not yield the desired results. Video professionals go through years of schooling and on-the-job experience to perfect their craft. Even though just about anyone can use iMovie, they may not know how to record high-quality audio, light a scene so it looks good on camera or know all the editing tricks that come from experience. Professionals also have access to more (and better-quality) tools that lead to high-end looking videos.

It probably wouldn't make sense for, say, a financial company to invest thousands of dollars in a good camera, Glidecam (Steadicam), green screen, studio lighting and pro-quality microphones. And even if they do have the money to invest in all of this, do they have someone who knows how to use it properly? (Bonus points if you can define "super-cardioid microphone," list some situations where it would be the best mic choice and identify it in the picture below.)

Read More...

Google+ aims to change the way you search, part 2

posted by Search

Earlier, we gave an update on Google’s announcement of Google+, which includes more details about its features. In this installment, Josh Mathe talks about how Google is making an effort to measure how Google+ is being used.

 

Did Google give us a way to measure just how social it is?

Google didn’t just stop at creating a more shareable and interactive Web experience. They know that without being able to measure this, the value will not be understood. To help us measure value, they went ahead and added some new features to their offerings:

• Webmaster Tools - Google Webmaster Tools is now allowing us to track and monitor +1 usage. With it we can see how pages perform with the +1 and without the +1. Remember that just because somebody in some location may +1 a page does not mean it will rank higher. Only people you are connected to can affect your rankings. It also allows you to see +1 activity for your site ranging from how many new +1s you have, how many you have total and general audience information. To put it simply, it lets you see analytics on how people are using your pages.

Read More...

Google+ aims to change the way you search, part 1

posted by Search

Some of you may have heard about this cool new thing called Google +1. Until recently, it has been in test phase and relatively unused by the masses. However, this is likely to change in the coming months because Google is once more making a play at social media. This time, they are not just latching on with a “me too” concept. Google is taking things in a new direction and then fully integrating it into everything they do.

 

Google+: A new kind of social network

Previously, social networking has been more akin to sharing everything with everyone or something with someone. However, as Google so deftly explains it, this is not how real interaction and connections work. You share specific things with specific groups. These groups change, grow, shrink, adjust and never really stay the same. It is through these interactions that weights and strengths are placed. Just because I am friends with someone doesn’t mean I will automatically decide to buy a car because they like it. Yes, this is a direct reference to the Bing commercials.

Read More...

---

Older Entries