Many developers and designers want to release their work into the world as open-source projects. They want others to be able to build on and share their code. The open-source community is vibrant because of this. Open-source software is available for virtually any application you could think of. Most designers use open-source software or code on a regular basis (WordPress, Drupal and many other CMS’ are open source).

But many developers and designers don’t have a clear picture of what the different open-source licenses really mean. What rights are they relinquishing when they choose an open-source license? Without knowing exactly what the licenses mean and how they’re best applied, developers can’t make informed decisions about which is best for their work.

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What Is Licensing?

A lot of confusion is out there about what exactly licensing means. When you license your work, you’re not giving away any of your rights. You still hold the original copyright (or patent if you have one) on that work. What a license does is grant specific permissions for others to use that work.

Licensing is a great alternative to just releasing your work into the public domain or granting permissions on a case-by-case basis. By releasing into the public domain, you relinquish any copyright, and no one is obligated to list you as the original author or contributor. In the latter case, you may end up spending more time dealing with individual permissions than designing or developing.

Open-source licenses make it easy for others to contribute to a project without having to seek special permission. It also protects you as the original creator, making sure you at least get some credit for your contributions. It also helps to prevent others from claiming your work as their own.

GNU General Public License

The GNU General Public Licence (GPL) is probably one of the most commonly used licenses for open-source projects. The GPL grants and guarantees a wide range of rights to developers who work on open-source projects. Basically, it allows users to legally copy, distribute and modify software. This means you can:

• Copy the software.
  Copy it onto your own servers, your client’s servers, your own computer, pretty much anywhere you want. There’s no limit to the number of copies you can make.
• Distribute the software however you want.
  Provide a download link on your website. Put the software on a bunch of thumb drives and give them away. Print out the source code and throw it from the rooftops (please don’t, though, because that would waste a lot of paper and make a mess).
• Charge a fee to distribute the software.
  If you want to charge someone to provide the software, set it up on their website or do anything else related to it, you can do so. But, you must give them a copy of the GNU GPL, which basically tells them that they could probably get the software elsewhere for free. Best to be up front about that, and about why you’re charging them.
• Make whatever modifications to the software you want.
  If you want to add or remove functionality, go ahead. If you want to use a portion of the code in another project, you can. The only catch is that the other project must also be released under the GPL.

Please note that it is very important to see source and binaries distribution as two very different things. Also, there are issues and restrictions with some licenses when used with applications released under “each other”. You can dive into more details in the detailed article Practical Guide to GPL Compliance (via @PierreJoye). To use the GPL, you have to include certain information in the software’s code, along with a copy of the license.

GNU Lesser General Public License

You should be aware of another GNU license: the Lesser General Public Licence (LGPL). It grants fewer rights to a work than the standard GPL. Generally, the LGPL is appropriate for libraries that want to allow linking from non-GPL and non-open-source software. Because the GPL requires that other software with parts of licensed code to also be licensed under the GPL, developers cannot use GPL-licensed code for paid and proprietary software. The LGPL negates this by not requiring other projects with parts of the code to be similarly licensed.

BSD License

BSD licenses represent a family of permissive free software licenses that have fewer restrictions on distribution compared to other free software licenses such as the GNU General Public License. Among different versions of the license two versons are particularly important: the New BSD License/Modified BSD License, and the Simplified BSD License/FreeBSD License. Both have been verified as GPL-compatible free software licenses, and have been accepted as open source licenses by the Open Source Initiative.

The New BSD License (”3-clause license”) allows unlimited redistribution for any purpose as long as its copyright notices and the license’s disclaimers of warranty are maintained. The license also contains a clause restricting use of the names of contributors for endorsement of a derived work without specific permission. The primary difference between the New BSD License and the Simplified BSD license is that the latter omits the non-endorsement clause.

MIT License

The MIT License is the shortest and probably broadest of all the popular open-source licenses. Its terms are very loose and more permissive than most other licenses. The basic provision of the license (minus the information that it is provided without warranty, which comprises the final paragraph) is as follows:

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

What this means is that:

• You can use, copy and modify the software however you want. No one can prevent you from using it on any project, from copying it however many times you want and in whatever format you like, or from changing it however you want.
• You can give the software away for free or sell it. You have no restrictions on how to distribute it.
• The only restriction is that it be accompanied by the license agreement.

The MIT License is the least restrictive license out there. It basically says that anyone can do whatever they want with the licensed material, as long as it’s accompanied by the license.

Apache License

The Apache License, Version 2.0, grants a number of rights to users. These rights can be applied to both copyrights and patents. Because some licenses can be applied only to copyrights and not patents, this flexibility would be an obvious factor in a patent developer’s choice of license (read this article on How Stuff Works for an explanation of the difference).

Here are some more details on what the Apache License allows:

• Rights are perpetual.
  Once they’ve been granted, you can continue to use them forever.
• Rights are worldwide.
  If the rights are granted in one country, then they’re granted in all countries. For example, if you’re in the US and the original license was granted in India, you’re not prevented from using the code under the license.
• Rights are granted for no fee or royalty.
  Not only will you not be charged any kind of up-front usage fee, but you will not be charged fees on a per-usage or any other basis either.
• Rights are non-exclusive.
  You can use the licensed work, and so can anyone else.
• Rights are irrevocable.
  No one can take these rights away once they’re granted. In other words, you don’t need to worry that down the road, when you’ve created some awesome derivative of the licensed code, someone will swoop in and say, “Sorry, you can’t use this code anymore.” (A clause in the license states that if you sue someone over patent infringement on anything under this license, then your license is terminated, but that only applies to patented work, and as long as you don’t sue anyone over the work, you won’t have to worry about it.)

Redistributing code also has special requirements, mostly pertaining to giving proper credit to those who have worked on the code and to maintaining the same license.

Creative Commons

Creative Commons (CC) licenses aren’t quite open-source licenses, but they are commonly used for design projects. A wide variety of CC licenses is available, each granting certain rights. A CC license has four basic parts, which can be enacted individually or in combination. Here’s an overview of the parts:

• Attribution
  The author must be attributed as the creator of the work. Beyond that, the work can be modified, distributed, copied and otherwise used.
• Share Alike
  The work can be modified, distributed and so forth, but only under the same CC license.
• Non-Commercial
  The work can be modified, distributed and so on, but not for commercial purposes. The language about what constitutes “commercial” is a bit vague (no express definition is provided), so you may want to clarify this in your own projects. For example, some might interpret “non-commercial” as simply meaning that you can’t sell the work. Others might take it to mean that you can’t even put the work on a website that has advertising. Still others might consider something is “commercial” only if it makes a profit.
• No Derivative Works
  This means you can copy and distribute the licensed work, but you can’t modify it in any way or create work based on the original.

As mentioned, these parts of the CC license terms can be combined. The most restrictive license would be the “Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives” license, which means that you can freely share the work, but not change it or charge for it, and you must attribute it to the creator. This is a good license to get your work out there but still maintain more or less complete control over how it is used. The least restrictive would be the “Attribution” license, which means that as long as people credit you, they can do whatever they like with the work.

CC licenses are used more for design work than development, but nothing bars you from using it for the latter. Just be aware of exactly what is and is not covered under each part.

Further Resources

• Creative Commons Licenses
  The official page, with descriptions of the CC licenses and links to the legal copy of each.
• Open Source Initiative
  A fantastic website that has information on the vast majority of open-source licenses.
• Open Source Licenses Comparison
  A chart comparing major open-source licenses.
• Understanding Open-Source Licensing
  A pretty thorough overview of what open-source licenses are and what they’re good for.
• HOW TO: Pick an Open Source License
  An overview of what to consider when choosing an open-source license.

(al)

© Cameron Chapman for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | 44 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
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I’ve had to turn down some development work while writing More iPhone 3 Development. This isn’t a big deal, as I expected that to happen when I agreed to do the book, and I like to see it, because it tells me that our platform is still doing well. However, a surprising number of the projects that I’ve turned down have been to fix iPhone applications written by other contract developers, something I don’t consider to be such a good sign.

Even if I were available to take the work, there’s something inherently uncomfortable about these situations. Some developer whose identity is unknown to me wrote this code. That developer has no chance to respond to my criticisms and I, in turn, have absolutely no idea of the situation under which the code was written. I feel like there’s no right way to point out flaws in code like this. Yet, to fix the problem or even give an accurate estimate, those problems have to be identified.

In one such recent instance, the potential (and very trusting) client actually sent me their code along with the description of the problem. I knew that I couldn’t take on a hefty project until the book is finished, but the description of the problem sounded like something that I might be able to be fix quickly and easily, so I looked at the code that evening.

The problem was exactly what I thought it was going to be based on the description, and I thought I’d be able to fix it with a few dozen lines of code over not more than a couple of hours, which would be a win for the prospective client and the client’s users who were experiencing significant performance problems with relatively low volumes of data. In a well-designed application, fixing this specific problem wouldn’t have impacted anything outside of a single class or, at worst, a handful of classes. It was a bottleneck in pure “Model” code in the MVC sense. In theory, as long as I didn’t change the way the object’s data was accessed and updated by other classes, I could change the implementation details, such as how the data was persisted, without impacting anything.

You know what they say about theories, right? They work great, in theory. But in practice…

So, yeah, that theory didn’t pan out. I started looking at the rest of the project looking for potential cross-depenencies and I found that my assumption was totally and completely wrong. The underlying data store wasn’t only vended through the data class, it was accessed directly by literally dozens of classes. In fact, all the actual persistence code – both loading and saving – (with the exception of encodeWithCoder: and decodeWithCoder:) was contained in controller classes. And there were dozens of these controller classes, many of which were nearly identical except for a handful of lines, which seemed to indicate a general lack of design or forethought. The core problem was thus made significantly harder to fix by a desperate and unrequited need for refactoring. There were, literally, several dozen classes that could have been written as a single-class or, at worst, a couple of subclasses with a common parent. The entire project looked like one thrown together by a tragically inexperienced developer, or one who didn’t have any use for “this new fangled OO shit”. Seriously, there should be a link to this project on the Wikipedia’s spaghetti code entry, in the section on “Spaghetti with meatballs”. Reading the project made me feel like I was in some weird programming equivalent of Poe’s Law; I don’t think I could intentionally create code this convoluted.

Now, I wish I could say that I’d never seen nor written bad code, but that wouldn’t be true. I’ve seen lots of bad code over the years and have written more than I’d care to admit. Despite that, though, this code was worse than most of what I’ve seen, and that’s saying something, given that my job for several years was fixing problems in other people’s code.

After a couple of hours, I came to the inescapable conclusion that this job was beyond my ability to take on right now. I’m almost positive that it would be more work to try and fix the multitude of problems in this code than it would be to just rewrite the application from scratch. Even if not, the end result would certainly be better. Out of fairness to the prospective client, I had to explain why I had to turn down the project, something that seems likely to cause problems for the previous developer. I couldn’t, in good conscious, not tell him, however. I did put it in far more diplomatic terms than I am doing here in my blog, at least, where I sometimes personify the fact that ‘tact’ is a four letter word.

The high demand for iPhone developers has made it a profitable livelihood and, I think, has caused many people to offer their services as iPhone developers without truly adequate experience. Hell, I’ve been working with the SDK as long as anybody outside of Apple, and I sometimes feel like I don’t have “truly adequate experience” with it – that’s the peril of a new technology I guess. Regardless, when you’re developing for a client or employer rather than yourself, you really need to be aware that there will be downstream developers affected by the decision you make or fail to realize are there in the first place. When you cut a corner to save time or fail to use good design because you don’t know any better or don’t care, that decision may very well have significant consequences for your client and for other developers who inherit your code.

Good application architecture and writing good code takes a little longer in the short run, but in the long run, it requires much less of a time investment to maintain. Yes, I know most of us bill by the hour and writing bad code is far more profitable than writing good code, but don’t do that. Seriously. That’s worse than just being ignorant of how to write good code. Despite the economy, there’s no shortage of iPhone development work right now, and even if that weren’t the case, you owe it to your clients to give them the best code you are capable of writing.

Addendum: Based on some of the comments, I fear that this post has come across as rather more judgmental than intended. Contract software development, especially for clients who are not familiar with the process, is extraordinarily hard. No contract developer has ever, ever created a perfectly designed, bug-free application. In the real world, you have to deal with deadlines, unreasonable demands, and tons of other factors that work against you delivering a perfect application. I am not unsympathetic to this at all, as I have experienced it myself on countless occasions.

I intended this only as a cautionary tale to give you something to think about when deciding whether to cut a corner or to skip doing that rewrite you know you need to do, not as an indictment of anybody. Believe me, looking at some of my early contract work, I’ve got some pretty harsh words for myself.

One of the most important traits in a developer is the willingness to accept that no matter how good you are, you do make mistakes. You will never stop making mistakes and you will never stop being able to learn from those mistakes. Sometimes, you can even learn from others’ mistakes and save yourself some pain.

©2009 Jeff LaMarche.
http://iphonedevelopment.blogspot.com

AppStoreHQ just published a searchable directory of all *published* iPhone app developers (i.e., at least 1 app in the App Store). IMPORTANT – if you do contract iPhone dev work in addition to shipping your own apps, you can edit your listing to reflect that so potential clients can find you. The directory is here: http://www.appstorehq.com/developers

In a nutshell, this is a new service that will enable you to share and edit both estimates and invoices over the web. There are many apps out there that let you create an invoice, and that is certainly useful. The only thing is that creating the invoice is just the start of the process. From that point onwards, it is not uncommon to have to send and receive a wealth of mails to clients and collaborators alike. This new app gets around this problem by creating a centralized platform that lets anybody connect with each other on the spot.

This is done by compressing the disparate e-mail threads into one conversation that will let anybody keep track of everything, and see where the project is headed and recall how it all started.

At the end of the day, this tool will be of use to freelancers and established agencies alike. If you want to figure out the ways it can best help you out, simply pay the site a visit and sign up for the 30-day free trial that is available.

In their own words

“Let’s face it, there’s a glut of invoicing apps out there. While there are some that come close to hitting the mark, they all manage to ignore the most important part of doing business: communication. Creating the invoice itself is only the first step – it’s invariably followed by days of back and forth email, corralling payments, haggling, and worst of all, a constant stream of CC’d emails updating your team. Ballpark is made for the real world: it centralizes communication with your team and clients into an easy use system that simplifies the process for everyone.”

Why it might be a killer

Such a tool caters both for small startups and those that already have more mileage, and it will let them maximize efficiency in a cost-friendly way.

Some questions

Are there different plans available? How can I find out which one will be the right one for me?

Link: http://www.getballpark.com
Our Review: http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/getballpark-com-send-estimates-invoices

 

We all are becoming more and more accustomed to turning to Twitter when we have to look up information. It is only fit, then, that different directories will crop up, giving us a good overview on any concept that we may be interested in. That is exactly what this website does – it collects information on different Twitter businesses, many of which include promotions.

This database can be browsed both alphabetically and by number of followers – the latter will give you something of an idea of the standing of each business. Moreover, the homepage highlights these businesses that have attracted the biggest numbers of followers so far, so that you can always see who are making waves online in a more or less immediate fashion.

Appropriately enough, you can tweet every featured company as links for doing so are provided.

On the other hand, if you want to have your business featured on the site you can do so effortlessly. This process involves setting down tags and so on. Furthermore, you can let twitterers know about any promotions through the site, and draw more attention to your business this way.

In their own words

“Twibs was created by a small group of people with one purpose: Give twitter users a place to find businesses on twitter. We are big believers in the power of twitter to connect customers with businesses. We’re working on making it easy for consumers to find businesses, both local and national. Keep in mind, we’re just getting started, so there may be small glitches and features missing, but don’t worry, we’re working hard for you to keep helping consumers find your business on twitter!”

Why it might be a killer

It is a direct way of knowing which businesses you can count on when it comes to the famed micro-sharing platform.

Some questions

How many businesses are already featured on the site?

Link: http://www.twibs.com
Our Review: http://www.killerstartups.com/Web20/twibs-com-twitter-business-directory

 

If you haven’t noticed, the writers here at TAB like to write about invoicing applications. Some of our recent reviews include Billings, OnTheJob and Involer. But forget all of those other invoicing applications. I just found the one true ring of invoicing and time management: GrandTotal + TimeLog from Media Atelier.

I have been testing this application bundle for the past two weeks ,and I am very impressed with the quality and overall user experience. Because of its integration with Address Book, iCal, MobileMe, and iWork, it really feels like it’s a native app.

GrandTotal

As an invoicing application, GrandTotal has an impressive feature set. Here is a short list of the many things GrandTotal can do:

• The ability to create recurring invoices
• An invoice editor that lets you customize your own layout (using existing templates or creating your own)
• Quotes & account statements
• Flexible tax settings & multiple currency support
• Integration with Address Book and TimeLog
• Catalog for recurring and fixed amount items
• Reminders for due & overdue invoice
• Many export options, including PD

Version 1.2 was released this week and with it came the following new features:

• iPhone application (more below)
• All-new UI for the Preferences dialog box
• Ability to create an invoice with just the Gross total
• Addition of a Recent list to the Overview

As I mentioned, the application is very easy to use. Let’s take a look at the main UI (items are intentionally blurred to protect the innocent):

GrandTotal Overview Tab – Recent/Open Invoices

GrandTotal Preferences – TimeLog Integration

TimeLog

As a time-tracking application, TimeLog’s feature set is also very impressive. Here is a short list:

• Uses iCal calendars and calculates the time spent on projects. You can assign clients to your projects from the Address Book. Your timesheets are then synced with MobileMe, ensuring they are current no matter which Mac you use.
• There is a menu item that lets you manage your time easily. You can start and stop the Timer with just one click.
• TimeLog can track the applications you use and then display the usage in the TimeLine. One caveat here is that it tracks everything you do. The developer does not have blacklist functionality yet, but he is working on it.
• Export your timesheet to Pages or Numbers — this is great for sharing your data with others prior to sending out an invoice.
• Integrates with GrandTotal — all of your timesheet data is easily available in GrandTotal for quick processing of invoices.

TimeLog Main Window

iPhone App

New to version 1.2 of GrandTotal is an iPhone app that lets you review your invoices while on-the-go. The best part? It’s free.

In the app, you can view Overdue, Due and Open invoices. You then click the invoices to see the full details as well as the contact information of the client. The client information is “hot” in that it will take you to your address book contact entry so that you can call/email/text them. A nice feature to have would be to re-send any outstanding invoices via the iPhone app.

The one requirement in using the iPhone app is that you must have a MobileMe account to sync your GrandTotal data. Otherwise, the app doesn’t work (which will be a deal breaker for some).

GrandTotal iPhone App Main Screen

GrandTotal iPhone App Invoice Detail Screen

Conclusion

The tag-team of these two products provides a pretty powerful punch in managing your time as well as your billing. The user interface for both GrandTotal and TimeLog is exceptional and makes it pretty easy to get set up for your small business.

Further, you now have iPhone integration so that you can review your invoices and their current standing with your customers. This way, it’s just a quick call away for asking the question: “Is the payment on it’s way out?”

However, are these two apps the best out there? Have we reached invoicing nirvana? Well, I would say it’s pretty close — if you don’t mind a few items:

1. The price. Compared to the competition, which averages about $40, to purchase both GrandTotal and TimeLog be prepared to spend about $75.
2. iCal integration is excellent, although there is a big caveat. I would discourage you from using any existing calendars as TimeLog changes the data to existing iCal meeting entries.
3. Application management. In the competitive space, both Billings and OnTheJob contain the majority of features in one, rather than two applications.

At the end of the day, you can overcome these issues if you want to have the most full-featured time management and invoicing products on the market.

The developer says that more is on the horizon. Maybe an iPhone app for TimeLog? Possible integration with accounting applications? Stay tuned. One thing is for sure, based upon what we have with GrandTotal and TimeLog, we can only continue to expect great things in the future from Media Atelier.

Why not simply use PayPal?

In their own words

‘The Invoice Machine takes a new clever approach to online invoicing. It’s beautiful and simple-to-use interface makes producing professional looking invoices a very pleasant experience.’

Why it might be a killer

The end result really looks pretty, and it has some powerful tools that you can use.

What it does

The Invoice Machine is a web application tailor-made for producing nice looking invoices, and keeping track of them at the same time. The whole focus of the site is on making things easier that before when it comes to generating invoices, but also to make them look a bit prettier and making the whole process a bit more efficient.

When one starts thinking why one should use this application it becomes notoriously apparent that the app itself allows a new clever approach to online invoicing. Everyone knows what a big pain it is to produce and chase all of those invoices to your clients, and see if you really got paid what you had to. With The Invoice Machine this has become a lot easier, because you can begin registering your clients and products and services, and then making new invoices can be done super simply. Every time you generate a new invoice you just need to chose the options from the pull-down menus and input the amounts and then you can send the invoice straight away. Another powerful feature is the possibility of detailing and rapidly calculating tax discounts and other variables regarding the invoice itself so you don’t need to pull out your calculator every time you have to produce an invoice. The service is also available in several languages, thus making it very versatile.

The service in its most basic form is free, however if you would like to send more than 3 invoices a month, then you will need to start paying a fee in order to use it.

Link: http://www.invoicemachine.com
Our Review: http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/invoicemachine-com-making-invoices-pretty-simple

 

You may have a personal portfolio website for a number of reasons. If you’re a freelancer, then you’d need one to showcase your work and allow people to contact you. If you’re a student (or unemployed), then you’d need one to show prospective employers how good you are and what you can do, so that they might hire you. If you’re part of a studio, then you might use one to blog about your design life, show people what you’re doing and build your online presence.

A personal portfolio website is all about promoting you. You are a brand, and your name is a brand name. No one is going to know about your brand unless you get it out there; and if you’re a Web designer, developer, writer, gamer or any other type of creative, then it’s essential that you have a good portfolio website.

You may want to take a look at the following related articles:

• Creating a successful online portfolio
• 50 beautiful and creative portfolio websites

What makes for a good personal portfolio website?

1. Logo

Your logo is usually the first thing a user sees. In the Western world, we read from left to right, top to bottom, so it makes sense to put your logo in the top left of your website so that users can immediately identify who owns the website.

It doesn’t necessarily have to be your name, but if you’re trying to promote yourself online, then it’s a good idea to go by your name. And always link your logo to your home page. It’s a common convention that users expect online.

Mohit goes by the alias of CSS Jockey.

Jason Reed uses a signature-style logo of his name.

2. Tagline

Once the user sees who owns the website, they’ll want to know what it is you do. This is where you explain what you do with a tagline. Your tagline should be short and snappy, summarizing what you do.

Things to ask yourself when writing your tagline:

• What are you? A designer? A writer? A developer?
• What do you do? Design websites? Develop games?
• Where are you from? Country? City?
• Are you a freelancer or do you work for a studio? Are you looking for work?

Sarah Longnecker makes it clear that she puts together videos and is good at it.

3. Portfolio

This is a personal portfolio website after all, so your portfolio will determine whether the website is interesting or not. People will want to see your previous work to decide whether you’re good or not and for general interest, to see what you’ve been up to in the past.

Depending on what you do, your portfolio should contain big high-quality images, clearly accessible to the user. Always include a link to the live version of the website you worked on, and link your screenshot to the live version (another common convention that people expect). Include a short description for each project, including the different skills that you needed to complete the project.

It’s never a bad idea to get a testimonial from a client. Your visitors might also be interested in the stages of development for your projects and how you arrived at the final outcome.

Leigh Taylor displays nice clear screenshots of previous work and indicates what software was used during development.

4. Services

Your tagline summed up what you do, but you’ll want to go into a bit more detail here about each service that you offer. You can’t expect potential clients to guess what you do based on your portfolio, and you don’t want to leave them wondering whether you offer a particular service or not.

Make it clear, and break it down: Web design, development, video, copywriting, branding, etc. You may want to be even more specific: corporate branding, church website design, Flash banner ads and so on.

Chris Spooner clearly indicates the services he offers for both print and Web.

5. About me

It’s all about you. Let people see the man or woman behind the mask (i.e. website). Share your background, where you came from, how many years you’ve been in the business, etc. The more details you give, the better your users can form a bond and build trust with you.

If you’re not camera-shy, show a picture of yourself. This will give potential clients peace of mind by allowing them to see who they’re dealing with, and it adds an element of trust.

Don’t be afraid to show off your awards and recognition here. You want people to know you’re good at what you do.

Chikezie Ejiasi shows us a photo of himself and even lets us know how to pronounce his name.

6. Contact

This is one of the most important elements of a portfolio website but is often hidden or even neglected. A potential client has browsed your website, is impressed with your portfolio and can see who you are. Now they want to hire you.

Your contact information should be obvious and easy to access; don’t hide it in the footer. Let people know they can contact you for a quote or a chat. Use a form to make it easier for users to contact you (so that they don’t have to take down your email address and then open up their email manager). A form also allows you to ask for specific information, such as name, email address, website URL, details of inquiry.

Stuart Johnston offers clear contact details throughout his website but also provides an easy-to-use contact form.

7. Blog

A blog is always a good idea. Blog about your area of expertise; show you know what you’re talking about. It will help promote you and prevent your website from lying static.

Let people follow you by subscribing to an RSS feed, and show off your most popular blog posts to new readers.

Be sure to enable comments for feedback. Don’t make users register to add a comment to your blog, and don’t use anti-spam Captcha software, which only turns people off from commenting. There are plenty of anti-spam plug-ins available that don’t require users to do extra work.

Chris Wallace uses his blog about Web design-related topics to help out other people in the industry and to engage in discussion.

8. Call to action

Ask yourself what you want to get out of your personal portfolio website. Do you want to be hired? Attract more blog readers? Maybe you just want people to know who you are.

Each page should have a call to action, a “Next step.” The best way to accomplish this is with a “call to action” button that is clear and stands out from the rest of the page. Link it to your blog, portfolio or contact page, and use appropriate language (e.g. “Hire me,” “Request a quote,” “View my portfolio”).

Matthew Brown’s call to action is a contrasting button that stands out from the rest of the website.

9. Use social networking websites

Now that people have an interest in you and your work, encourage them to follow you on other websites. Make it clear that they can follow you on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, etc. Make the most of social networks and have a group of friends to call on if needed.

Sam Brown offers clear links to other websites he uses, allowing us to stalk him.

10. Language and communication

How you conduct yourself is important. Remember, it’s a personal portfolio website, so be personal. You don’t need to sound like a corporate brand with no emotion. Be friendly and personal, but also clear and precise; don’t ramble. Once you write all the text for your website, read it again and see if you can cut it in half.

Marius Roosendaal uses a relaxed and friendly tone on his website.

Other tips:

• Let people know where you’re from. This is always interesting to know, and some clients prefer to work with people nearby or in the same time zone.
• Validation is important, especially for Web designers. If you’re going to be building professional websites for clients, then your own website’s code should at least be valid.
• Link images, not just text. Most people will click on images, expecting them to point somewhere.
• If you don’t have any previous clients for your portfolio, create a WordPress theme, design an icon set, develop a Twitter mashup, etc. You have a lot of possibilities, and there’s a big difference between having one project to show in your portfolio and having none.

40+ beautiful personal portfolio websites

Robbie Manson

F. Claire Scroggins

Timothy van Sas

Ole Martin Kristiansen

Maru Velázquez

Chikezie Ejiasi

Miki Mottes (Flash)

Jakub Krcmar

Mopa

Chris J. Lee

Pedro Lamin

Cartonblanc (Flash)

Leigh Taylor

Alex Coleman

Sarah Longnecker

Toby Powell

Jay Hafling

Elliot Jay Stocks

Tony Geer

Marius Roosendaal

Ryan O’Rourke

<img /> is everything (Phil Thompson)

Leigh Taylor

Design Me (Marek Levak)

Matt Dempsey

Brad Candullo

Andre Augusto

Rob Hawkes

Magnus Jepson

Corking Design (Daniel Cork)

Evan Eckard

Alexandru Cohaniuc

Miles Dowsett

Andrew Bradshaw

Shannon Moeller

Vitor Louranco

Mark Dearman

Wong Yeng Kit

Chris Wallace

Spoon Graphics (Chris Spooner)

Fabiano Meneghetti

Mark Wallis

Chris Morris

Paiko (Heiko Brömmelstrote)

Conan Robbins

Henry Jones

Winnie Lim

Greg One (Gregoire Hoin)

Mark Hadley

David Appleyard

Design Moves Me (Roy Vergara)

Brian Murchison

Mike Precious

Digital Deceptions (Duncan)

Chirag Solanki

Jason Reed

Johnston North (Stuart Johnston)

Penflare Designs (Sean Farrell)

Nine Lion (Chikezie Ejiasi)

Brian Wilkins

Jason Santa Maria

David Hellmann

Guillaume Pacheco

Dave Lam

Luke Stevens

James Lai

Alessandro Cavallo

CSS Jockey (Mohit)

Kerry Nehil

Darren Hoyt

Matthew Brown

Digital Mash (Rob Morris)

The Things We Make (Mike Kus)

Ed Merritt

What do you expect to see on a good personal portfolio website?

Anything important we’ve missed? What would make the difference between your deciding to hire someone and deciding against it?

Further reading:

• 10 characteristics of excellent portfolio websites
• 50 excellent designer portfolio websites
• Creating a successful online portfolio
• 50 beautiful and creative portfolio websites
• Call to action buttons

About the author

Lee Munroe is a freelance web designer from Belfast. You can see his other writings on web design on his blog, or follow him on Twitter.

(al)

© Lee Munroe for Smashing Magazine, 2009. |
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Post tags: design, Design Showcase, portfolios

Today we’d like to introduce to an interesting new CRM web application called Dashboard.

Dashboard joins an increasingly populated market of small business CRM apps including our favorites Tactile CRM, Highrise, Batchbook and PipelineDeals.

The reason why I thought this was a worthwhile mention? Primarily because I’m a sucker for a clean UI, but more importantly because it’s seems to focus on the absolute basics: converting leads to deals.

With just four main sections (dashboard, to-do’s, leads, deals) to the application, Dashboard appears to take the 37signals mentality one step further by making things ultra-clear and ultra-simple. To make the most of the tool, add your various leads, assign the todo’s required to each of them to convert them to ‘make things happen’ and once you’ve sealed the deal – convert them into “deals”.

As you would expect, each lead or deal can have notes attached to them, to-do’s and documents. There is a decent search facility which organises your searches by to-do’s, leads and deals.

There are other limitations, the most obvious being you can currently only add leads into the app manually or via CSV file, undoubtedly, other methods (email!) should be added shortly. There are minor bugs and the app cannot currently compete with the features other established players bring, however the app is free and looks to be so for the foreseeable future whilst new features and functionality are added. If you love your apps clean and simple, this is a must try.

via Carlos Granier-Phelps in The Apps Room on Friendfeed.