With these tips, your association's site can stay ahead of the curve and be at its best. Get the tips here.
Thoughts from Blend Interactive
One of Blend’s core values is a dedication to advocacy and progress — to expand upon and give back to the community that fuels us. This is where those thoughts live.
Search Results List
Episode 22: Test and Launch the Site (w/ Bob Davidson) Off-site link
Corey and Deane talk about the concept of the “Nails List.” Then, Bob Davidson, Director of Development at Blend Interactive, joins to talk about how to get your site ready for launch, what makes a good QA practitioner, the role of quality assurance and testing in the development process, and how to prep the site so it doesn’t fall over when exposed to the real world. We also spend a lot of time talking up Jenna Bonn, Blend’s QA Practice Manager.
Journaling as a Management Tool
In management, your team depends on you to help follow up on solving pain points and barriers. But, for the mind of an engineer with a spotty memory, managing this workload can be difficult. Blend's Director of Development Bob Davidson explains how he supplements his workflow with a mix of technology, process, and habit through daily journaling.
Are Summer Hours the New Normal Hours? Off-site link
For the past year, Blend has been studying the effects of a 36-work week and how embracing work-life balance, trust, and employee well-being leads to increased productivity, retention rates, and a positive workplace culture. In this month's article for Skrift, Karla walks us through the business decisions behind shifting "Summer Hours" to "Normal Hours."
DXP and Optimization - Setting Goals
Optimizing your website doesn't always require the budget of a Fortune 500 company. We're here to help guide small businesses toward enhancing their digital presence with the first in a three-part series: setting goals for web optimization.
Episode 21: Migrate and Populate the Content (w/ Carrie Hane) Off-site link
Corey and Deane discuss an old migration project. Then, Carrie Hane, Principal Digital Strategist at Sanity and co-author of Designing Connected Content, joins to talk about preparing content for site migration — how good content modeling helps set up a site for future success, the psychological side of migrations, and a few horror stories from Carrie and Deane. Carrie graciously insists this is not the most depressing episode yet.
Looking Back at Codegarden 2023
This year, our team attended Umbraco’s international conference, Codegarden. Karla attended as Host/Emcee, Joe as a session speaker, and Chase as a diversity ticket attendee.
Optimizely Release Notes — May-June 2023
The following release notes highlight major or interesting changes in Optimizely's products from May and June 2023.
Umbraco Releases Version 12
An overview of Umbraco's newest release, Umbraco 12, highlighting the anticipated changes it brings to the user experience.
Episode 20: Implement the Back-end Functionality (w/ David Knipe) Off-site link
Corey and Deane discuss a high-level philosophy of back-end development. Then, David Knipe, Vice President of Product at Optimizely, joins to discuss back-end development — how developers and project stakeholders work together to make decisions, the difference (and balance) between technical perfection and audience needs, and the reasons why AI will help, but not take over, back-end development. Deane also equates developers to lumberjacks.
Overcoming the “Suck It Up, Buttercup” Mentality
As Mental Health Awareness Month concludes, Karla Santi shares a few thoughts to help fight stigma, raise awareness, advocate for anyone on our team with mental health conditions, and honor her loved ones.
Beyond Blend.
Blend doesn’t just write here: we also write books, create videos, and dive deep into our individual disciplines. Check out some of our external sources of knowledge.
The Web Project Guide
A phase-by-phase look at the web design and development process, providing context to each step.
Coding with Bob
A YouTube series by our director of development, focusing on .NET coding and Optimizely development.
Eating Elephant
A blog about content strategy, information architecture, and understanding user needs.