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OUTLAWDESIGNERS is one of those newsletters that Tech Mailings Guy comes across and wishes he had more hours in his day. It's the newsletter of the Web site of the same name developed by a group of women who define "hip and happening." Their reference to putting on my leather jacket when I visit them did not hurt either.
When I dropped into their Web site, before looking at the newsletter --- and especially considering how many Web design newsletters and sites I have reviewed --- I visited the pages they had designed for themselves or their clients. The ten or fifteen I looked at had two things in common:
- They loaded quickly on a dial-up connection.
- The design was open, tasteful and appropriate to the site.
Okay. We are not dealing with the Clueless here. These woman are professionals and have a great aesthetic sense. I don't know about you, but having seen lots of so-called Web designers out there, I look for savvy and professionalism. You'll find both here.
Considering how stereotypically male-dominated the Web is, it was a breath of brisk fresh air to find females with a great grasp of this medium, rock-steady skills, worthy clients, and great advice to offer to those who need to know what works on the Web. They offer to do site "face-lifts" on their Web page. I can think of a number of corporate sites that could use their services.
But that's not all! The newsletter is one of the most active I have had the privilege to read in weeks. Their digest version comes out more frequently than other newsletter's daily posts. Vitality is the keyword here.
I'll share a quick snip from the outlawdesigners archive:
"From: Cheryl Cowtan
"Webhosting offers a hosting/e-commerce solution - the one that I found offered the most control and if you go there (webhosting.com) read up on the unix/nt options so that you know what to expect from a shopping system. Webhosting is not providing what they advertise due to software issues/technical problems. Their merchant company also, do not offer transactions in Canadian funds. Still a good resource.
"I'm currently redesigning www.bookcloseouts.com and working with a team of ASP programmers who have created and are maintaining their shopping system. Their reason for custom programming is flexibility and control -their inventory is over 5 million books so you can see the need for real time updating - shipping - data bases - mail programs etc. A smaller company, in my opinion, does not require their own custom designed shopping system. See redesign at www.bookcloseouts.ca
"There are a number of issues - like exchange rates, shipping costs through NA and international, NT/UNIX hosting, customer's merchant account that all have to be considered. I personally think a hosting/shopping system is the easiest solution though it may not be the most flexible. Ensure that should the customer want to take their site elsewhere, the shopping system is compatible with most servers.
"I'll share some of my bookmarks tomorrow. :)zzzz
"Anne Goodrich wrote:
From: Anne Goodrich
Hey Outlaws. I'm confused. Just a non-techie designer question I'm going to throw out here. When considering ecommerce (for a business I'm developing with a partner), what's your expert opinions? Go with hosting that offers ecommerce as part of their package, find a software package, and if so, which one?
-- Cheryl Cowtan"
RECOMMENDED HIGHLY.
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