Please note Beacon will be closed on Dec 23, Dec 26, Dec 30 and Jan 2.

IMPORTANT DATES
12/23/11 (Fri) – Beacon Closed for Holiday
12/26/11 (Mon) – Beacon Closed for Holiday
12/30/11 (Fri) – Beacon Closed for Holiday
1/2/12 (Mon) – Beacon Closed for Holiday

*Most of the Beacon staff checks their email regularly, but if you have an emergency, please call Beacon PCS at 336-232-5699 or 888-893-0843.

Thank you and have a happy holiday from your friends at Beacon Technologies!

The Google Spirit stood among the search results, and pointed down to scroll. Scrooge moved his mouse, trembling.
The Phantom was exactly as it had been, but he dreaded that he saw new direction in its solemn algorithm.

“Before I draw nearer to that link to which you point,” said Scrooge, “answer me one question. Are these the shadows of rankings that Will be, or are they shadows of rankings that May be, only.”

Still the Ghost pointed downward to the search results by which it stood.

Scrooge paged and paged downward, trembling as he went; and following the finger, finally found a familiar link within
the list of the neglected websites bearing his own company name, Scrooge & Marley.

“Am I that person who ignored the move to social signals.” he cried, upon his knees.

The finger pointed from the listing to him, and back again.

“No, Spirit. Oh no, no, hear me. I am not the person I was. I will not be the person I must have been but for this decision.
Why show me this, if I am past all hope.”

“Good Google Spirit,” he pursued, as down upon the ground he fell before it: “Your nature intercedes for me, and pities me. Assure me that I yet may change these results you have shown me, by an altered organic marketing approach.”

“I will honor Web Marketing in my heart, and manage it all the year. I will live in the meta-tag Past, the link-building
Present, and the Social+ Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I may ascend from the depths of this list.”

Happy Holidays From Your Friends at Beacon Technologies!

Cards of Holidays Past…

We’re proud to announce the release of the Greensboro Housing Authority redesign!  As always, Beacon was right on-time with our deliverables, which is always our goal.  The client chose a soft launch date of December 1, 2011 because they wanted to show the new site to their Board of Directors at their annual meeting that day.

Their Web site was designed and constructed in-house several years ago, which meant that it was time for a completely new look.  The site also had content that was very out-of-date, so the client took it upon themselves to do a complete rewrite of the content, and restructure the site to be more intuitive.  Also, they wanted to get away from having to update the site by-hand using HTML, and wanted it in a content management system.  Finally, they wanted a new Web hosting partner.

Enter Beacon:

• We provided them with a brand-new graphical design;
• Developed it to display perfectly in multiple browsers;
• Implemented the new site into Cascade Server (content management system) to allow multiple users to update the content with an easy-to-use solution;
• Incorporated a new search feature;
• Imported approximately 60 pages of content, including 20 fact sheets about each of their properties;
• Transferred their Web site to a shared hosting package here at Beacon.

Several Beacon staff members made this project a success:

• Wendy:  Without much direction from the client, Wendy put together a design that they liked on the first try, which is phenomenal.
• Stephanie:  She was instrumental in getting the project off the ground, attending the initial meetings and providing meeting notes, the business requirements, and proposed site hierarchy.
• Zed:  He was thrown into the fire, as this was his first development project here.  He developed the front-end HTML/CSS/jQuery, and implemented the site into Cascade Server (which he picked up on very quickly), and entered most of the content.
• Tiffany:  Provided assistance and training to Zed.
• Justin:  Project Management and Cascade Server documentation & training.
• Beacon’s Technical Support Group (TSG):  And finally, no site hosting transfer is complete without the efforts of TSG, specifically Caleb and William, for setting up the hosting and troubleshooting some DNS issues over a weekend.

This is another high-quality design to add to our portfolio, and another non-profit site we can be proud of.   Thanks to everyone involved!

Before

After

Greetings from the 2011 Beacon Holiday Party.

Websites designs are always evolving and that’s a very good thing.It’s great for inspiration, engaging customers and can give a fresh new outlook on how the audience views your site.

The 3D effect is a great example in evolving designs. It helps give the illusion of depth to your site and when designed in a certain way can even be interactive and entertaining. There are some

It all depends on what you’re trying to achieve with the 3D effect. It could be for the site’s overall look or even enhance products visuals, that can give the customer a better feel for what they might purchase.

Some effects are drop shadows, 3D rotations, protruding banners, field of vision that has clear focus on an element in the foreground and another element blurred in the background, floating objects and color effects.

These are a few client sites from the Beacon team, that incorporate the 3D effect.

Protruding Banner
www.newbridgebank.com

Rotating Images
www.bassettfurniture.com/quality/explore-wood-furniture.asp

Field of Depth
www.framingham.edu/academics

With it’s constant stream of updated content and ever changing array of new tools that effect the way we interact with it, it’s entirely possible that nothing is more effected by visual trend than the Internet. That is why it becomes extremely important that your own website be influenced by and utilize these latest design trends but still maintain a timeless classic design that will stay fresh and relevant no matter which way the visual Internet trends sway.

Embrace Trends for the Details but Maintain Classics for the Foundation

For some time now the freshest designs have used subtle gradients and drop shadows to render 3D styling that help keep the site from looking too flat and static. Textures have also become increasingly important since they help break away from the typical cold sterile feel of flat computer graphics. Protruding title banners that break out of sidebar columns and non standard web fonts that are now possible are everywhere and making the Internet a more beautiful place, but all these things are good in moderation. Instead of running away with the latest design tools and splattering them across every portion of your site, using them in a subtle manner will actually make them more appreciated and will keep them from compromising foundational design that is vital to maintaining a look that stays fresh and usable over time.

Your Brand Must Stay at the Core

No matter what, your established visual identity and branding must influence every design aspect. If you have been representing your company with the same shade of green, sans-serif font and rounded mark for the past ten years, these visual elements can be carried over into your site layout. Green element can be added throughout the site to carry on the brand, creating a unified look and the same sans-serif font being used by your company can be utilized (especially with the @font-face capabilities of CSS3) in header and title tags throughout the site.

Functionality Above All Else

All of this doesn’t matter if usability is compromised. If the entire purpose of your site is to sell used books, having a search function that is buried at the bottom of your page will greatly compromise the user’s ability to successfully find the items they are searching for since it is the primary way content will be found on your site. A site like this could even put the search front and center with advanced search filters and gearing the design around this function while keeping product category menus close at hand. Your site should be as intuitive as possible, which basically means the user should be able to actually use the site without having to think too much about it.

Reflecting Back in Time to Understand Where We Are Headed

Possibly the best way to understand what designs will withstand that test of time and stay fresh and relevant for years to come is to look back at what has already withstood the test of time up until now. Neutral colors will always be dependable and clean fonts will always be readable, for example. The level of skill and care with which graphics are created really can make a difference, even seem to defy the limitations of technology if implemented in clever ways, just like a watch that is created with care by a skilled craftsman.

Beacon Technologies, Inc. is expanding its team and seeks qualified candidates for the following positions.  Please click on the link to learn more about each specific opening.

• Account Executive / Sales Representative
• Senior IT Project Manager
• .NET Developer

To Apply: send resume via email to: operations@beacontec.com

ABSOLUTELY NO WALK-INS or PHONE CALLS! Otherwise, your application may be rejected.

If you are working in WordPress and are thinking about modifying the core WordPress code I’d like to tell you why you shouldn’t. I’ll start with a reminder that WordPress has created both plug-in and theme capabilities to help customize every part of WordPress including looks and functionality. Given you can accomplish what you need using these tools, hacks shouldn’t be needed and are not recommended.

Reasons why you shouldn’t hack WordPress core files:

• There’s almost always a solution that doesn’t involve hacking core files
• Almost all situations should be handled with a hook or custom plug-in
• Upgrading to the latest version or security patch will overwrite your changes
• Core file changes could cause other plug-ins to not work correctly
• Makes it more difficult for other developers to debug or solve issues

Modifying the core files is a quick fix that will likely end up more costly than doing it correctly the first time or the functionality could just disappear on the next upgrade. It is more likely among amateur and beginner developers that are not aware of the correct way to implement the functionality. I’m not saying you will never have to edit the core files because there is that chance you may find a bug. But in that case you need to report it to WordPress so they can fix it in the next upgrade.

So next time you’re working with WordPress take some time to look through all the WordPress documentation out there and I guarantee you there is a better way of solving the issue that will not interfere with future development and updates.

As for beginners to WordPress I highly recommend the print and PDF version of the book Digging Into WordPress by Chris Coyier & Jeff Starr. It is the best WordPress book I’ve come across and on my top 3 books of all time. I cannot express my love of the spiral binding (I wish all tech/developer books did this), the large and colorful print and screenshots throughout the book and most importantly the content itself covers everything you would want to know in a detailed, accurate and easy to follow way.

I find this Fedex commercial hillarious for a couple of reasons, but primarily because I think this could be a great advertisement for Beacon’s web marketing expertise. Search Engines are the modern day Yellow Pages for customers looking for company information – back in the day a clever way to rise to the top may have been adding A’s to your company name. Today it’s all about web marketing.  Our Web Marketing team helps our clients rise to the top through innovative Organic Optimization techniques. They take a comprehensive approach to SEO by looking at all the various components which gives our client’s the edge over their competition.  If you are looking to increase your web exposure and drive qualified traffic – give us a call.

Beacon is a development partner for the eCommerce platform ASPDotNetStorefront and has been developing successful eCommerce websites with them since 2007.  Here are some features and functionality that we love about the software as well as a few “tips and tricks” that hopefully you will find helpful!  Please be sure to chime in with your own thoughts and suggestions…

Public Site Features

These are some features about AspDotNetstorefront that we really like and promote to our clients, along with a few links to where we have put some of these features to use.  Note that a few of these items require a purchased add-on for full functionality, but they are generally inexpensive, easy to install and don’t require source code.

Admin Site Features