Nielsen's Web Design Mistakes

Jakob Nielsen announced his annual Top Ten List of Web Design Mistakes this week. He's been publishing this list since 1996.

Nielsen has been called "the guru of Web page usability." His User Experience 2005 Conference will visit Boston October 23-28.

Here is his "list of design stupidities that irked users the most in 2005":

1. Legibility Problems
2. Non-Standard Links
3. Flash
4. Content That's Not Written for the Web
5. Bad Search
6. Browser Incompatibility
7. Cumbersome Forms
8. No Contact Information or Other Company Info
9. Frozen Layouts with Fixed Page Widths
10. Inadequate Photo Enlargement

For a detailed explanation access Nielsen's Top Ten Web Design Mistakes for 2005.

Boston Market -- October

Structured Query Language (SQL) remains the single most valuable skill in demand in the Boston technology marketplace. More than 460 opportunities requiring SQL knowledge and experience are listed at BostonWorks.com and more than 1,000 opportunities are listed at Monster.com.

The demand is understandable. Virtually all software programs feature a visual front end and a database back end. A Web application is nothing more than a Web page front end and a database back end. SQL is the standard language used to access information from the database component regardless of the visual interface.

This month's analysis focuses on scripting languages that carry SQL statements to and from the server-side database.

The low end of the demand curve features the following (jobs listed at BostonWorks.com in parentheses):

• ColdFusion (15)
• PHP (37)

The high end of the demand curve features the following:

• ASP.NET (85)
• ASP (137)

One overlooked scripting technology is the following:

• Perl (140)

Bulk up your skill set today with training in one of these valuable high-demand technologies. These two online training opportunities offer the most promise:

• Introduction to Programming with Perl
• Building Applications with Microsoft ASP.NET

The Perl class is available from Virtual University (VU) and starts Monday, October 10. The ASP.NET class is available from the HP Learning Center and starts Thursday, October 13. VU classes are $20 and HP classes are free.

Kid's Programming Language

Bill Gates and Paul Allen used a programming language called BASIC to launch the personal computer revolution in 1975. Microsoft's version of this language evolved into QuickBASIC (QBasic) in the '80s, Visual Basic (VB) in the '90s, and now Visual Basic . NET (VB.NET).

A new language has emerged to replace BASIC as a starting point to learn computer programming. The Kid's Programming Language (KPL) is compatible with Microsoft's .NET technology. KPL is being promoted by Microsoft and was developed by an independent company whose engineers are former Microsoft employees.

The original catalyst for the development of KPL was to provide children with a contemporary language to learn programming that makes it easy to develop games with both visual and audio components. By making it fun for kids to learn programming the developers, with Microsoft's endorsement, hope to attract the next generation of computer programmers.

To learn more about KPL access a press release and product overview. Free software is available for download. Parents and teachers can download a User Guide. Expect additional resources, such as a Dummies book, to be on the market soon.

Technology Fast 50

Fast growing companies are more likely to hire people than slow growing companies.

Technology companies are more likely to hire technology professionals than non-technology companies.

Here are the 50 Fastest Growing Technology Companies in New England as identified by Deloitte & Touche and reported by Mass High Tech:

1. Click Tactics, Inc., Waltham, MA
2. Salary.com, Needham, MA
3. MBI Benefits Inc. (Metavante Corporation), Waltham, MA
4. VoiceSignal Technologies, Inc., Woburn, MA
5. Capital Fulfillment Group, Hingham, MA
6. WorldWinner, Newton, MA
7. VistaPrint, Lexington, MA
8. Oasis Semiconductor, Inc., Waltham, MA
9. NeuroMetrix, Inc., Waltham, MA
10. athenahealth, Waltham, MA
11. Cardiotech International, Inc., Wilmington, MA
12. Biogen Idec, Inc., Cambridge, MA
13. Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Lexington, MA
14. Netspoke (Premiere Global Services), Woburn, MA
15. OpenAir, Inc., Boston, MA
16. S4, Inc., Burlington, MA
17. Evergreen Solar, Inc., Marlboro, MA
18. Transkaryotic Therapies, Inc., Cambridge, MA
19. LocatePLUS Holdings Corporation, Beverly, MA
20. PACE Medical, Inc., Waltham, MA
21. Outcome Sciences, Inc., Cambridge, MA
22. BuyerZone.com, Watertown, MA
23. Ecora Software Corporation, Portsmouth, NH
24. AVANT Immunotherapeutics, Inc., Needham, MA
25. Picis, Wakefield, MA
26. Inverness Medical Innovations, Inc., Waltham, MA
27. Phase Forward Incorporated, Waltham, MA
28. Intranets.com, Burlington, MA
29. Matritech, Inc., Newton, MA
30. Unica Corporation, Waltham, MA
31. IntelliReach Corporation, Dedham, MA
32. eCopy, Inc., Nashua, NH
33. Curis, Inc., Cambridge, MA
34. Datafarm, Inc., Marlboro, MA
35. Sepracor, Inc., Marlborough, MA
36. e-tractions, Bedford, MA
37. Caliper Life Sciences, Inc., Hopkinton, MA
38. iBasis, Inc., Burlington, MA
39. Skyworks Solutions, Inc., Woburn, MA
40. Elcom International, Inc., Norwood, MA
41. Palomar Medical Technologies, Burlington, MA
42. PaperThin, Inc., Quincy, MA
43. Bentley Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Exeter, NH
44. LeMaitre Vascular, Inc., Burlington, MA
45. CrunchTime! Information Systems, Inc., Boston, MA
46. IntelliCare, South Portland, ME
47. Softscape, Inc., Wayland, MA
48. Bruker BioSciences Corporation, Billerica, MA
49. ScanSoft, Inc., Peabody, MA
50. Clinical Data, Newton, MA

What CIOs Want

Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are looking for more than a few good networkers. Their IT departments are hiring and if you have knowledge and experience with computer networks they want to hear from you.

The results of a quarterly national poll of more than 1,400 CIOs from U.S. companies with 100 or more employees are summarized in the Robert Half Technology IT Hiring Index and Skills Report.

The following technical skill sets are most needed by CIOs in their IT departments (percentage of CIO response):

• Microsoft Windows (NT/2000/XP) administration expertise (81%)
• SQL Server management (51%)
• wireless network management (49%)

The specialties most in demand in IT departments are as follows:

• networking (19%)
• help desk/end user support specialists (15%)
• applications developers (12%)
• data/database managers (11%)

If you are new to computer networking help is just a click away at the HP Online Learning Center. Two courses to consider include the following:

• Servers 101
• Network administration best practices

Both classes begin Thursday, September 15, have no prerequisite, and are FREE.

Back to School -- HP

Looking for technology training this Fall? Check out Hewlett-Packard's Online Courses. The three classes that offer the most promise include the following:

• Introduction to programming
• Advanced Adobe Photoshop CS2
• Building web applications with PHP and MySQL

Classes appear to begin and end at different times. The three classes above begin Thursday, September 15. Enroll now. Popular classes fill up quickly -- they are FREE!

What CIOs Are Saying

Two out of three Chief Information Officers (CIOs) expect to increase hiring in the next 12 months according to an annual Labor Day Poll conducted by CIO Magazine. The vast majority of these tech workers will be direct hire (77%), as opposed to, domestic-based contract workers (11%) or foreign-based contract workers (10%). A detailed press release is available for review.

A second survey of CIOs conducted by Robert Half Technology provides insight into the background of the ideal tech candidate. IT executives say that, all things being equal, the following three qualifications will tip the scales in the favor of the selected candidate:

• industry-specific experience (43%)
• soft skills (32%)
• relevant certification (15%)

The survey's author recommends candidates new to a particular field focus on transferable skills. "To convince hiring managers they can excel in the organization, prospective employees should relate previous work experience directly to the requirements of the job opening," says Katherine Spencer Lee.

Boston Market -- September

The Monster Employment Index for August rose to its highest level ever indicating continued labor market strength as the Fall hiring season approaches. A search of Web development keywords for opportunities in the Greater Boston Area confirms this demand.

Skills in greatest demand include knowledge and experience with the following:

• databases (SQL, Oracle, SQL Server, Access)
• Web page development (HTML, XML)
• Web programming (Java, JavaScript)
• Website / database connectivity (ASP, JSP)

Here is a sampling of the opportunities available (approximate number of listings in parentheses):

• SQL (1,000)
• Oracle (1,000)
• Java (700)
• SQL Server (600)
• HTML (500)
• XML (500)
• ASP (400)
• Access (300)
• JavaScript (200)
• JSP (200)

Skills that continue to lag the marketplace with less than 100 listings each include the following: Flash, Dreamweaver, DHTML, CSS, MySQL, PHP and Cold Fusion.

The links on the right side (under Career Links) provide easy access to Web development opportunities listed at the Monster.com Website which consistently lists twice as many opportunities as BostonWorks.com.

Steve Jobs Speaks

On June 12 Steve Jobs delivered the Commencement speech to the 114th graduating class at Stanford University. Jobs' message was simple and eloquent. "Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories."

• the first story is about connecting the dots
• the second story is about love and loss
• the third story is about death

A video of the entire address -- 15 minutes total-- is available at YouTube. Why not begin today with words of wisdom from Steve Jobs? Just 15 minutes. "That's it. No big deal."

Boys vs. Girls

Designers beware. Not only must we account for cross-browser design differences, now we must account for cross-gender design differences!

Websites created by men and women are different. So different, in fact, that women prefer Websites developed by women and men showed a preference for Websites developed by men, according to a first-of-its-kind-study published by a Business School in the U.K.

The study's co-author states that "businesses definitely need to sit up and take notice."

The implication is that Websites visited predominantly by one gender (women's beauty products, for example) may be less effective at attracting customers if developed by a person of the opposite gender.

The study evaluated Websites on 23 factors and significant differences were found on more than half of these factors when comparing male vs. female designers. Males, for example, favor the following design esthetics:

• straight lines (as opposed to rounded forms)
• few colors in the typeface and background
• formal or expert language with few abbreviations

Conclusion: If you are an independent Web designer, you might want to obtain feedback from a designer of the opposite sex throughout the design process, especially if your client and/or client's primary target audience is of the opposite sex.

IT Hourly Wages

Hourly wages for Information Technology (IT) professionals averaged $29.38 in the second quarter. This hourly rate equates to an annual salary of more than $61,000.

This hourly pay calculation is based on wage data from 5,000 IT professionals working on short- and long-term projects at 1,000 large employers according to the Yoh Index of Technology Wages.

Not all IT pay is equal, however. Workers possessing skills that are in heavy demand receive higher-than-average pay. A few of the hottest skills, centered largely around database and programming skill sets, are as follows (average hourly wages in parentheses):

• ASP.Net ($50.90)
• C#.Net ($52.09)
• C/C++ ($49.97)
• Java Developer ($52.59)
• Oracle DBA ($53.81)
• SQL DBA ($47.53)

So, Web developers who want to upgrade their skills -- and their earning potential -- will do well by adding a technology such as ASP.Net to their arsenal. ASP.Net is the latest version of Microsoft's Active Server Pages (ASP) technology.

Software and training does not need to be costly. In fact, Microsoft offers "a lightweight, easy-to-use and easy-to-learn development tool focused exclusively on Web development" called Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition. In addition Microsoft provides an online QuickStart Tutorial. Also, be sure to check out W3Schools' ASP.NET Tutorial for complementary training. All resources referenced are free of charge.

Web Design Pet Peeves

A study of 2,500 adult Internet users in United States reveals Web design features that annoy them when accessing commercial Websites. The implications are clear: more than 70% of visitors who are aggravated when viewing a Web page say they are less likely to make a purchase or even return to the Website!

So, what do visitors find annoying? Here are the top offenders:

• pop-up ads
• registration log-on pages
• eye-catching Flash software

Additional "pet peeves" include the following:

• dead links
• confusing navigation
• slow loading pages
• ineffective site search tools

Web developers can use this research to educate clients on effective Website design. To review the details of this study access a press release issued by Hostway, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and sponsor of the study.

Hostway is also sponsoring a free Web seminar entitled "How to Design a Consumer-Friendly Web Site" on Tuesday, August 16. It is designed to look at the business ramifications of these "pet peeves" and provide advice and resources for building appealing Web sites.

Boston Market -- August

This month's job market analysis focuses on two core skills -- HTML and SQL.

HTML is used to display information in a Web page. SQL is used to locate and display information stored in a database. The display of database information in a Web page requires knowledge of both HTML and SQL. In addition, knowledge of a scripting language - the glue that binds HTML and SQL - is the third piece of the puzzle that can make a static page dynamic.

Listed below are five common Web-based scripting languages along with the number of jobs currently listed in BostonWorks.com:

• ASP (126)
• JSP (94)
• ASP.NET (74)
• PHP (31)
• ColdFusion (10)

Listed below are the number of jobs posted on BostonWorks.com for our two core skills:

• HTML (207)
• SQL (463)

SQL job listings have consistently outpaced HTML job listings by more than a 2:1 ratio throughout the year. In fact, knowledge of SQL is vital in developing proficiency in the top five hottest non-certified skills (25% or more pay growth) in the past twelve months. So, Web designers who want to buff up their resume will do well to add SQL to their skill set.

SQL training is a mere click away by accessing a free SQL Tutorial at W3Schools. If you feel you already have a working knowledge of SQL you can test your knowledge with a 20-question SQL Quiz.

IT Market Compensation Study

Information Technology (IT) job opportunities will continue to expand throughout 2005 according to a newly released study. Overall, two out of three of the 160 organizations surveyed projected hiring additional technology workers.

In particular, if your technology experience touches on the following areas then IT recruiters want to talk with you:

• project manager
• web applications programmer
• security analyst
• database administrator
• network engineer

Specifically, the skills that IT organizations report having the greatest difficulty recruiting are the following:

• PeopleSoft
• J2EE
• Microsoft.Net
• Java
• Oracle
• Visual C#.Net
• SAP
• XML and XML Web Services

The survey reveals that while Web applications programmers are in demand, the specific technologies that professionals with Web-based skills should consider developing include Microsoft.Net, Visual C#.Net and XML.

The place to start: XML. If you have a working knowledge of HTML, you can add XML to your resume with a little self-paced training. Simply access W3Schools' XML Tutorial and begin your free training today. W3Schools also provides free tutorials on Microsoft.Net and ASP.Net.

To learn more about the 2005 IT Market Compensation Study access a press release from Gartner.

IT Skills & Certification

A survey of 50,000 IT professionals reveals that the offshore outsourcing of technical talent has slowed and has begun to reverse for technology professionals with in-demand skills. According to the survey's author, David Foote of Foote Partners, companies "are once again investing in their own people to build and maintain systems critical to their business strategies."

So what are these in-demand skills? Tech skills were evaluated based on pay growth for individuals with and without certification. The non-certified skill areas that exhibited the most pay growth in the first six months of 2005 were as follows:

• operating systems (8.2%)
• networking/internetworking (5.1%)
• database (4.3%)
• applications development (2.1%)

In particular, four of the top five hottest non-certified skills (25% or more pay growth) in the past twelve months were Microsoft-related:

• SQL Server
• Websphere
• Active Server Pages
• Microsoft .NET
• SQL Windows

For those tech workers with certification the areas that have seen the most growth were as follows:

• Web (3.8%)
• applications development/programming languages (2.3%)
• database (0.7%)

According to the author, companies are searching for "workers with solution-specific experience within a particular industry" to develop "new products and services that will ensure their competitiveness against challengers of all sizes and geographies." He concludes by stating that "most employers favor both experience and credentialing in a job candidate whenever possible."

Web designers and developers should consider obtaining CIW Associate certification, the first in a series of Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW) certification paths available from Prosoft. For a complete list of 86 certifications used in this analysis, along with links to certification Websites, access Web Apprentices' Training Center.

A summary of this research is available at Information Week. For a more detailed findings access a Foote Partners Press Release.

Boston Market -- July

The market for Web Developers continues to grow in the greater Boston area. An analysis of job listings in the Boston Globe reveals that the job market has expanded approximately 33% over the past five months. Database (SQL and MS Access) and programming skills (ASP and JavaScript) continue to outpace design skills (Photoshop and Dreamweaver).

Listed below in descending order are a few of the most in-demand Web Developer skills.

• Skill -- number of listings (percent increase from February)
• SQL -- 425 (12%)
• MS Access -- 217 (36%)
• HTML -- 192 (22%)
• ASP -- 124 (27%)
• JavaScript -- 93 (58%)
• Photoshop -- 80 (40%)
• Dreamweaver -- 28 (33%)

The Career Links in the right-hand column provide easy access to job listings from both Bostonworks.com and Monster.com.

Best Places to Work

How does your employer rate? Is your workplace one of the best in Massachusetts? To find out pick up a copy of the June 27 issue of the Boston Business Journal. Or, simply review the interactive list below.



Small (20-100 Employees):
Adheris Inc.
ADS Financial Services Solutions
ath Power Consulting
The Castle Group Inc.
ChoiceStream Inc.
DSCI Corp.
Eliassen Group Inc.
Epsilon Associates Inc.
Imceda Software Inc.
Insight Performance Improvement Inc.
Intranets.com
Kforce Professional Staffing
Mazu Networks Inc.
Pyxis Mobile Inc.
Richards Barry Joyce & Partners
SHIFT Communications LLC
Stacy's Pita Chip Co.
Text 100 Public Relations
Thrive Networks Inc.
Travel Collaborative

Midsize (101-500 Employees):
athenahealth Inc.
BBN Technologies
Boston Communications Group Inc.
Commonwealth Financial Network
Danversbank
Deploy Solutions Inc.
Excel Switching Corp.
Gentle Giant Moving Co. Inc.
MC Communications LLC
Nixon Peabody LLP
Nutter, McClennen and Fish LLP
Seaport Companies
Shawmut Design and Construction
SolidWorks Corp.
Suffolk Construction Company Inc.
TechTarget Inc.
VERC Enterprises
Vitale Caturano & Co.
Wolf & Company PC
Wolf Greenfield & Sacks PC

Large (Over 500 Employees):
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Bingham McCutchen LLP
Bright Horizons Family Solutions
Comcast Corp.
Deloitte & Touche USA LLP
Digitas LLC
Genzyme Corp.
Grand Circle Corp.
Hallmark Health System
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care
International Data Group
Kronos Inc.
Lifeline Systems Inc.
New England Baptist Hospital
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Progress Software Corp.
Roche Bros. Supermarkets Inc.
Shields Health Care
Simmons College
Winchester Hospital

Technology Skills in Demand

A survey of 1,400 Chief Information Officers (CIOs) reveals that the next three months will provide the best hiring opportunity for technology workers in the last three years. In addition, New England is expected to lead the nation in hiring demand according to the quarterly IT Hiring Index and Skills Report issued by Robert Half Technology.

The skills sets reported to be in greatest demand by CIOs were the following:

• Microsoft Windows (NT/2000/XP) administrators (77%)
• Wireless network management (48%)
• SQL Server management (47%)

In addition, nearly a quarter of CIOs reported a demand for Active Server Pages (ASP) development and .NET development skills.

While help desk/end-user support (17%) and networking (17%) are the job categories experiencing the most growth, data/database management (11%) and internet / intranet development (8%) professionals continue to be in short supply. These findings bode well for Web professionals with database knowledge and network administration experience.

Since many of the skills in demand are Microsoft-specific (SQL Server, ASP, .NET, etc.), Web professionals should consider obtaining certification in one of nine core skills. A 15-minute video is available to learn more about Microsoft certification.

Boston Market -- June

As discussed in yesterday's post, E-commerce Trends, online commerce continues to expand at greater than 20% annually. This month's Boston Market explores the skills necessary to be proficient in developing an e-commerce Website.

The two basic skills of HTML and SQL are the starting point because they represent the knowledge required to create a Web page (HTML) and access information from a database (SQL). Of the two skills SQL is in greater demand as reflected by current job listings in the Boston Globe:

• SQL (412)
• HTML (228)

A search on the combined skill set of SQL and HTML reveals 77 listings.

In addition, knowledge of a scripting technology that facilitates the connection between a Web page and a database is the third basic skill necessary to develop Web applications. Of the three primary scripting technologies, Microsoft-specific skills (ASP and ASP.NET) continue to be in the greatest demand in the Boston marketplace:

• ASP (133)
• ASP.NET (81)
• PHP (34)
• Cold Fusion (8)

A search on the combined skill set of SQL and HTML and ASP reveals 30 listings.

The links on the right-hand side provide easy access to these and other job listings in both BostonWorks.com and Monster.com.

E-commerce Trends

E-commerce -- the buying and selling of goods and services over the Internet -- continues to expand at greater than 20% per year according to latest research available from Shop.org. Categories with products purchased largely by women will see the most growth this year. These include online sales of the following:

• cosmetics and fragrances (33% growth)
• over-the-counter medications and personal care (32%)
• jewelry and luxury goods (31%)
• flowers, cards, and gifts (30%)

The report entitled The State of Retailing Online 8.0 is a detailed survey of 137 retailers that explores the opportunities and challenges facing retailers selling and marketing on the Web, including store-based, catalog-based, and Web-only retailers.

These online retailing trends bode well for Web developers with e-commerce skills. To learn more about how to work with clients who might want you to develop an e-commerce Website access a five-lesson tutorial available from Web Monkey, The Web Developers Resource. Topics include the following:

• Lesson 1 -- Making a plan
• Lesson 2 -- Sales techniques
• Lesson 3 -- Online transactions, taxes, security, credit card processing
• Lesson 4 -- Software solutions
• Lesson 5 -- Attracting customers