What is a Content Management System(CMS), and does my business need CMS?

A Content Management System, or CMS for short, is an administrative software system that allows its users, often unskilled in HTML and web development, to update, edit and create new pages on their website.

• Does your web site contain a huge number of pages and corresponding level of difficulty in keeping track of all of them?
• Does your organization rely on constant and regular web site changes, often with several people working on it?
• Do your web site contributors lack sufficient knowledge in HTML?
• Do you need to editorially review each new page before publication?

Can your company relate to any of the above scenarios? If so, using a CMS will save a lot of time, hassle and money in the long run.

Basic of a CMSA typical CMS works like this,

1. A web design layout is designed and developed. Usually this entails a logo/banner at the top, standard navigation menus across the top, down the left side, and/or at the foot of the page, and a 'blank' area where content is inserted
2. This layout format is then converted into a master template for all subsequent pages. During the process of this conversion, the CMS admin backend is integrated and tested.
3. Web content producers are given access and instructions on how to add text and images to web pages automatically. Most CMS are usually very intuitive and easy to operate.
4. Each generated page is saved onto a database, for future editing or deletion.

More elaborate CMS can perform unique functions (such as archiving, built-in search engines, and mod rewrites), but basic functionality is still related to easy creation and editing of web pages.

Types of CMS

Proprietary CMSThese systems are usually very expensive to purchase such as the $500,000 and up Vignette system. These high end systems however come loaded with full features and usually have excellent customer and technical support. Common uses of these systems involve very large organizations with departments that require unique functionality.

Open source
These systems are typically free and relatively easy to install. Some of the better known open source systems includeMambo and Drupal. Because of its open source nature however, you will find a dearth of customer and technical support, however there exists a huge following and forums dedicated to the popular systems. Customization capabilities vary from system to system. Be sure to do all the necessary research before deciding on one.

Custom CMS These types of systems are usually preferred as they allow you to develop from scratch, your preferred functionality. Debugging is also less of an issue as your web developer, having written the codes, can easily isolate and fix problems.

Bear in mind there are literally hundreds of CMS to choose from. Ranging in costs from free to over $500,000. What you do need to do, is firstly figuring out exactly what functionality your organization needs, your development budget and finally find a system that suits those needs best.

The downside to installing a CMS is of course, the amount of web development needed initially. While you are able to obtain free open source CMS programs, you still need to hire someone experienced and capable enough to integrate it correctly. This initial expense however, is usually a necessary evil and is justified as you avoid the need of hiring or outsourcing your webmastering needs down the road.

Search engine optimizing your CMSIf you do decide to install a CMS for your web site, the following considerations should be applied.

Mod rewritesThis ensures that your dynamically generate URLs are search engine friendly as opposed to using long session ids and strings. The search engines bots will then have no difficulty in indexing and caching these pages.

Fields for title and meta data entryIdeally, you want to be able to insert your own title tags and meta tags. This applies to the alt tag code for all images as well. Using the correct keywords in these tags often provides a nice search engine rankings boost.

SitemapsAll generated pages should be automatically inserted into your global sitemap. This allows the search engine bots to easily find and spider all new pages.

Inspiring and hilarious quotations from amazing designers

We all hit road blocks sometimes. That’s why you got to have a stack of good quotes that will help you remember why you started what you are working on in the first place.

Here are some inspiring and hilarious quotations from amazing designers that are sure to help any productivity or inspiration block! 

•  1. “If you think math is hard, try web design.” ―Trish Parr 
•  2. “There are three responses to a piece of design – yes, no, and WOW! Wow is the one to aim for.” -Milton Glaser 
•  3. “What separates design from art is that design is meant to be… functional.” ― Cameron Moll 
•  4. “If there’s one thing you learn by working on a lot of different Web sites, it’s that almost any design idea–no matter how appallingly bad–can be made usable in the right circumstances, with enough effort.” ― Steve Krug, Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability 5. “Websites promote you 24/7: No employee will do that.” ― Paul Cookson 
• 6. “It’s through mistakes that you actually can grow. You have to get bad in order to get good.” – Paula Scher 
• 7. “Intuitive design is how we give the user new superpowers.” – Jared Spool, Web Site Usability: A Designer’s Guide 
•  8. “The public is more familiar with bad design than good design. It is, in effect, conditioned to prefer bad design, because that is what it lives with. The new becomes threatening, the old reassuring.” – Paul Rand 
•  9. “Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it’s decoration.” -Jeffrey Zeldman 
•  10. “Create your own visual style… let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others.” – Orson Welles 
•  11. “Technology over technique produces emotionless design.” –Daniel Mall 
•  12. “Never fall in love with an idea. They’re whores. If the one you’re with isn’t doing the job, there’s always, always, always another.” – Chip Kidd 
•  13. “Digital design is like painting, except the paint never dries.” -Neville Brody 
•  14. “Design is as much an act of spacing as an act of marking.” – Ellen Lupton 
•  15. “Practice safe design: Use a concept.” – Petrula Vrontikis 
•  16. “The problem is there are no simple “right” answers for most Web design questions (at least not for the important ones). What works is good, integrated design that fills a need—carefully thought out, well executed, and tested.” – Steve Krug 
•  17. “Great web design without functionality is like a sports car with no engine.” ― Paul Cookson 
•  18. “Good design is obvious. Great design is transparent.” – Joe Sparano 
•  19. “The life of a designer is a life of fight. Fight against the ugliness. Just like a doctor fights against disease. For us, the visual disease is what we have around, and what we try to do is cure it somehow with design.” – Massimo Vignelli 
•  20. “Websites should look good from the inside and out.” ― Paul Cookson 
•  21. “A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” –Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 
•  22. “Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.” -Andy Warhol 
•  23. “I strive for two things in design: simplicity and clarity. Great design is born of those two things.” -Lindon Leader 
•  24. “Design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way as best to accomplish a particular purpose.” – Charles Eames
•  25. “The idea of waiting for something makes it more fascinating”. – Andy Warhol