When I mention to people in passing that I’m trying to manage a lot more of my business ‘in the cloud’, most people offer up a rather blank expression. Followed by one that says “I know I don’t need to know about this, but I’m guessing I’m about to hear about it anyway”.

The first and most obvious question that comes to people’s mind is ‘What is the cloud?”. So…

What is the cloud?

There are lots of explanations on the web that you could look up for a definition or to get a historical breakdown of how cloud computing came about. Forget that. You’ll get bogged down. Simply put, the cloud is space on the internet to put your stuff. Anywhere that you upload files normally stored on your home (or any single) computer/device to somewhere on the internet, that you could later access using another entirely different computer/device over the internet….is cloud computing. You already use it with Facebook and Youtube. The complexity with which you access and manipulate your stuff is the only thing that makes it any more complicated.

Just think of it as a big space up there in the ether where you can put things you want to be able to access from anywhere in the world using just a browser.

Why do we need it?

I can’t vouch for everyone because everyone has different and varying needs when it comes to managing their files and documents. But there are a number of circumstances when having access to cloud storage would be extremely helpful.

Mobility

The primary reason for using it is mobility. If all of your files are centralised up there in the cloud, as long as you can get to a computer/mobile device with a browser and internet access, your physical location is irrelevant. Which means no need for remembering to transfer everything to a USB stick, no more emailing yourself files from home so you can pick them up in your email at work, no more “Ah crap, it’s on my home computer” moments. It makes you prepared and it makes you flexible.

Security

Storing files with reputable cloud storage services is arguably more secure than keeping them on your home computer or USB stick. You can delete files from your computer and they are gone forever. You can lose a USB stick and they are gone forever. Because cloud storage services are handling other people’s (sometimes extremely important/sensitive) data, they are very hot on security and use high end data encryption making it almost impossible for other people to find and get access to your files. Now ask yourself what could happen if someone sat down at your computer and guessed your girlfriend’s/boyfriend’s/pet’s name to log in. Ask yourself what could happen if you lost your USB stick or it broke. Scary isn’t it.

Nearly all cloud storage services allow you to recover deleted or modified versions of your files. So even if you accidentally deleted one, you can get it back.

Using the same practice as above, you can also keep track of changes made to your documents and roll them back if you were happier with previous versions. While this is not considered full-on, business-level version control, it certainly gives you enough to manage your files safely and securely. More so than your home computer at least.

Synchronicity

One of the coolest features of services like Dropbox and Box.net is the sync feature. What this means is that, with Dropbox as an example, if you open up a file you have stored on their server and edit it, once you save and close the file it gets synced across all computers and devices where you have Dropbox installed. So the next time you open up the file from another location, it will be the most up to date version with all your latest changes. All you need to do is save and close – like you would do anyway :D

Service/product improvement

One of the limitations with using software stored on your computer (like Microsoft Office for example) is that you’re tied into it. Those products won’t improve until a big update is pushed. Quite often people run into problems when running those updates as their computer or OS has changed in ways that can affect the upgrade process.

If you use a cloud-based service like Google Docs (a direct alternative to MS Office), updates are rolled out quicker, more frequently and usually with little or no interruption to service.

Companies like Google recognise the importance of the transition from static file management to something entirely more helpful and flexible and therefore make services like Google Docs compatible with MS Office. What this means is that any document you created with an MS product – like Word docs and Excel spreadsheets, can be opened, modified and saved in Google Docs, totally seamlessly. Also, files created with newer versions of MS Office (with extensions like .docx and .xlsx) won’t even open on some computers with earlier versions of the same software (MS Office 2003 for instance) without the user downloading an addon. How mental is that?

Google Docs has no such limitations, allowing you to do what you like with any versions of MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc docs, from any computer, anywhere. Sweet.

Levelling the playing field

Cloud computing can really level the playing field for smaller companies and startups. Those companies can leverage the power, technology and wealth of much larger companies by renting storage space, functionality or just about any kind of service now.

Renting near unlimited amounts of disk space in the cloud is just one example of the benefits of cloud computing, but what else can you do with cloud computing?

You’re already using it manage your social profiles on sites like Facebook and Twitter. But you can also rent your own help desk and integrate that into your company website. You can make real-time video and audio calls over Skype to anybody who also has Skype installed for free. You can manage your entire business’ financial accounts and invoicing on services like Harvest and Freshbooks. You can manage any type of project with multiple users on applications like Basecamp, Lighthouse and Active Collab. If you’re a web developer, you can even manage your entire development environment online through services like Coderun and Kodingen. The possibilities are endless.

How to get it

There are plenty of cloud storage services on offer. Some are free and some require a (usually small) monthly fee.

Free cloud storage space:

• Dropbox (up to 2GB, up to 8GB if you refer friends)
• Box.net (up to 5GB)
• Google Docs (up to 1GB)
• Windows Live SkyDrive (up to 25GB)
• Memopal (up to 3GB)
• ZumoDrive (up to 1GB)

Paid cloud storage space:

• Dropbox
• Box.net
• Amazon S3
• ZumoDrive

As you can see, most services offer a free trial or small amount of free storage to entice you to upgrade to their premium packages. This is cool because you can then sign up for a free trial and play around with it to see if you like it enough to upgrade to a paid service. Or you could stick with the free version if you don’t need a lot of storage space.

Basically

This is the future not just of the way we work, but eventually the way we live. More and more aspects of life in general are being pushed online through web and mobile apps, and services are cropping up all over the place to cater for things you didn’t even know you needed or were possible. As it becomes easier and quicker to get a net connection from almost anywhere, the barriers to entry of becoming cloud-focused get smaller and smaller. It’s not something to be afraid of. It’s an endless supply of opportunity and it’s something to be embraced. The quicker we get on board with it, the more chance we have of staying flexible and agile in our working and living arrangements – whatever they may be.

Check out these posts for further reading on cloud computing and its uses:

• 50 Great Web Alternatives to Desktop Software
• Salesforce.com: What is Cloud Computing?
• How Cloud Computing Can Help A Small Business Get Out of the Recession

An admin site is something I’ve needed for a long time. It had to work the way I expected, the way I wanted and the way that made sense to me. And I thought I’d make use of all these new WordPress features while I was at it. Two birds, one stone.

The aim: to be able to add clients and projects as elements in their own right

What for?

New Clients and Projects custom post types

Previously you would need to add a ‘post’ that had been coded up to function how you wanted. A bit of hackery was involved to make them appear as something very customised and display them where you wanted, especially if you were running a blog as well (WordPress blogs use posts as the default display method)

What did I do?

Set up a new custom post type for clients. With a few lines of code in the functions.php file it’s pretty easy to do this.

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function wpt_client_posttype() {
    register_post_type( 'clients',
        array(
            'labels' => array(
                'name' => __( 'Clients' ),
                'singular_name' => __( 'Client' ),
                'add_new' => __( 'Add New Client' ),
                'add_new_item' => __( 'Add New Client' ),
                'edit_item' => __( 'Edit Client' ),
                'new_item' => __( 'Add New Client' ),
                'view_item' => __( 'View Client' ),
                'search_items' => __( 'Search Client' ),
                'not_found' => __( 'No clients found' ),
                'not_found_in_trash' => __( 'No clients found in trash' )
            ),
            'public' => true,
            'supports' => array( 'title', 'editor', 'thumbnail', 'comments', 'custom-fields' ),
            'capability_type' => 'post',
            'rewrite' => array("slug" => "clients"), // Permalinks format
            'menu_position' => 5,
            'register_meta_box_cb' => 'add_clients_metaboxes'
        )
    );
}
 
add_action( 'init', 'wpt_client_posttype' );

Now you’ll have a new section in the left nav of you WordPress admin where you can view clients and add new ones. How satisfying is that! All you need to do now is create a new single-clients.php and customise the hell out of it until you get the kind of page you’re looking for.

Custom post types in-depth: Six Revisions: WordPress Custom Post Types Guide | Justin Tadlock: Custom post types in WordPress

Bonus: Use this Custom Post Type UI plugin to speed up adding and editing custom post types.

The aim: add new ways of filtering content through custom taxonomies

What for?

Multiple new taxonomies for Clients

In the same way categories and tags are ways of grouping related content, taxonomies are your opportunity to make a new kind of group. Using taxonomies I would be able to add groupings such as location, package type, company type etc etc. I would then be able to associate each client to each of these.

What did I do?

Instead of setting up tonnes of categories and tags which all have inherently the same value, I registered some new taxonomies in the functions.php file. To add a taxonomy use the following code:

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add_action( 'init', 'create_company_type' );
function create_company_type() {
 $labels = array(
    'name' => _x( 'Company Type', 'taxonomy general name' ),
    'singular_name' => _x( 'Company Type', 'taxonomy singular name' ),
    'search_items' =>  __( 'Search Company Types' ),
    'all_items' => __( 'All Company Types' ),
    'parent_item' => __( 'Parent Company Type' ),
    'parent_item_colon' => __( 'Parent Company Type:' ),
    'edit_item' => __( 'Edit Company Type' ),
    'update_item' => __( 'Update Company Type' ),
    'add_new_item' => __( 'Add New Company Type' ),
    'new_item_name' => __( 'New Company Type Name' ),
  ); 	
 
  register_taxonomy('company_type','clients',array(
    'hierarchical' => true,
    'labels' => $labels
  ));
}

You’ve just registered a new taxonomy to your previous custom post type of clients. That means you can now enter as many different types of company as you want through the WordPress admin, as you would with regular categories, and then select which one your client belongs to. Imagine how far you can take this…

Custom taxonomies in-depth: Six Revisions: A Guide to WordPress Custom Taxonomy | Justin Tadlock: Post types and taxonomies: Linking terms to a specific post and Custom taxonomies in WordPress 2.8

Bonus: Use the same Custom Post Type UI as above to create new taxonomies and link them to specific post types.

The aim: add truly custom meta boxes that display only when adding or editing clients

What for?

I say ‘truly’ because by default WordPress offers a custom fields box which you can manipulate to do anything with. But if you want to add custom fields that have their own title and input field, and that are only displayed when adding a new client, you have to be a bit more clever. For example, if I wanted to add a website address for a client – the website would not need to be a taxonomy or category in itself because I would never sort clients by website address. So they would go in as flat data using a custom meta box.

What did I do?

Use the functions.php file to add a bunch of meta boxes to the custom post type of ‘clients’. The code is as follows:

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// Add the Clients Meta Boxes
 
function add_events_metaboxes() {
    add_meta_box('wpt_website_address', 'Website Address', 'wpt_website_address', 'clients', 'side', 'default');
}

This will add a nice and neat little box to the side of your main content area where you can enter a website address for the client.

Custom meta boxes for client info

Custom meta boxes in-depth: Shiba Shake: Add a Standard WordPress Meta-Box | Farinspace: How to Create A Custom WordPress Meta Box Instead of Using WordPress Custom Fields

Bonus: Use the Verve Meta Boxes plugin to add all sorts of new meta boxes.

The (nearly) finished product

Mixing all of these features together and with some customised single.php and taxonomy.php templates, this is what I ended up with. It’s not finished (probably won’t ever be as I continue to add functionality/improvements) and I’m still uploading content, but at least I now have a platform I’m comfortable with and that does the majority of what I need.

Client page using native WordPress featured images

Single client page

Client details

Projects page sorted by progress and showing project type (taxonomy)

Single project page showing filterable taxonomies such as server numbers, domain renewal dates and documentation provided

File repository for templates and re-usable docs (looking a bit bare at the moment)

Integrated Google calendars for schedules page and knowledgebase page

It was actually really enjoyable to build for many reasons. Partly, because my primary browser is Firefox, so I didn’t need to concern myself with Internet Explorer and cross-browser compatibility (although it does render pretty neatly outside of FF). But also, manipulating your own data rather than a clients’ for a change is actually very satisfying because you know exactly how it should work and be used. The only restraints are ones you decide to impose on yourself.

This is nowhere near finished and I intend to work on it over time to build up to a more robust and complete system.

Conclusion

This is obviously not a comprehensive post on how to combine custom post types, taxonomies and meta boxes. More an indication of how they could be used to compile something very customised.

While the introduction of these new features certainly improves the WordPress system as a whole, the features are not entirely complete and small bugs do exist. Though I have no doubt they will all be squished over time and hopefully some nice UI built into the core to add and manage them all. Still, these features alone have taken WordPress from awesome blogging platform/potential CMS to fully-fledged CMS as far as I’m concerned. Good work guys.

Having recently launched a completely redesigned and re-branded WHD website, I thought it appropriate to highlight an issue that seems to affect a lot of web and graphic designers while the dilemmas and frustrations are still fresh in my mind.

As just about any designer (web or otherwise) will tell you; you are, always have been and will continue to be the hardest client you will ever work for. This is an unavoidable truth. The pressure to come up with something that perfectly fits the wants and needs of your users, shows an awareness of current trends but still projects individuality, separates your business from those around you striving to achieve the same goals, and that still manages to satisfy your own continually shifting desires time and again is a huge obstacle to overcome for even the most accomplished of designers.

Why is it so difficult to design for yourself?

Whether you run your own company, work as part of an agency or live by the seat of your pants as a freelance, your own site will be the biggest indication of your abilities to any prospective customers or employees. Websites are your domain. This is what you do. Your website is more often that not your stone-cold introduction and first impression, which is why you work so tirelessly to perfect it. But why is it so hard to design your own site?

Your own ambition and expectations

As a designer human being, you are always pushing yourself to be better. This is human nature. People are never satisfied. It’s natural to want your next design to be sleeker, leaner and more beautiful than the last. To continue pushing boundaries. To keep stepping up the ladder. Continued professional development is not an easy thing to master, particularly in an industry that changes and evolves as rapidly and unpredictably as web design.

Other people’s ambitions and expectations

People expect you to be on top of every trend and modern movement in your field. After all, this is your profession. You are a web designer therefore anything people see on the web, they expect you to be able to recreate or improve upon. What these people often fail to take into account is the size, experience and budget behind the teams that produce these enormously popular and well-built websites.

Industry respect and recognition

The web design world is an extremely competitive one. Gaining any degree of respect or recognition from the community can be exceptionally difficult. As a new or aspiring designer you might find yourself in the position I was in with version 1 of WHD – chasing approval of my work from every avenue available to me. I had a particular appetite for web design and CSS galleries. My site found it’s way into over 50, which was remarkably satisfying at the time. But I soon realised that there’s more to it than that. Having your work featured is a great feeling, but what does it actually do for your business? How does it help you improve as a designer? Apart from the initial burst of SEO goodness garnered from these little bundles of joy that are web galleries, there is reasonably little to be gained, yet you run the risk of becoming sidetracked and placing way too much importance on what your peers think of your work, rather than your clients. You should be looking beyond this. Don’t chase recognition, good design will always be recognised. Focus your energies on improving yourself and what you do.

Choice paralysis

This is a concept I was first introduced to by Paul Boag when he spoke about the difficulties users are often faced with on eCommerce websites that have too many options or products. But the concept stretches further than this. I’m a chronic procrastinator. I think about everything. I think way too much. I think about what I’d like to do, how I’d like to do it, the possible pitfalls and potential benefits of every aspect of every action. This leaves little time for doing. When designing your own site, you are limited only by your imagination. As empowering as that might sound, when you are sitting in front of a blank Photoshop canvas, it can be excruciatingly painful attempting to get those first marks on the page. What style will you go for? What resolution will it suit? What font will you use? What kind of imagery? Two column layout or three? The possibilities are endless.

What can you do about it?

There are various ways to jog yourself out of this black hole of indecision. Hopefully one of them will work for you.

Treat yourself as another client

This is the first thing most designers will tell you to do if you ever mention that you’re having issues working on your own stuff. The theory being that if you take out your own emotional attachments and work like you would on anybody else’s site, you’ll produce better and more efficient work than you would otherwise.

Browse web galleries

Web galleries are the perfect way to gather inspiration and ideas. They are choc full of the latest, most eye-catching and well-built designs. A good indication of what is considered good or exciting design. Here are some of my favourites that I will regularly visit if I feel in need of an inspiration boost:

• www.bestwebgallery.com
• www.thebestdesigns.com
• www.webcreme.com
• www.cartfrenzy.com
• www.smashingmagazine.com

Relax

This will not be your last site redesign. You can always change it. People handle pressure differently. Some people thrive under it, while others will crumble. But it’s always worth remembering that this is your website, therefore you can change it any time you wish.

Think differently

It’s very easy to get bogged down with one particular area of the site. You can end up investing a lot time in something that was meant to be very quick. If you get stuck for too long in one area, try to tackle other areas of the site. Inspiration is an extremely unpredictable emotion and hard to control. So when you feel on top of your design game, you need to use it. You can’t afford to get stuck in one area and lose your motivation.

Shake things up

Sometimes you just need to break your cycle. Being in the same place all the time can lead to the same thought processes, even the same working patterns. Take a walk, change your surroundings. Work out of your home or office. Try coffee shops, parks, anything but your regular place of work. You might be surprised with what you come up with if you push yourself to work differently.

Example: On the way home from work every day I have a 20 minute slot on the train in which I sometimes try to break out the laptop and hit Photoshop with whatever I’ve got before I have to pack up and get off the train in a mad rush. It’s a slightly strange feeling rushing everything, but I find it forces me to just get something down on paper as it were. For me personally, getting started is always the hardest part so this works well for me.

Conclusion

Inspiration and creativity is integral to what we do as designers, yet they are some of the hardest qualities to keep firing on a continual basis. Added pressure from yourself or others can make it next to impossible to feel energised and motivated for your project and can easily lead to burnout if you aren’t careful. The trick is to use it to its fullest when it’s available to you. And when it’s not, to better understand how you can trigger it. Everybody is different. Find what works best for you.

When are you at your most creative and what are your tried and trusted methods for getting inspired? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.