Incubagency

It’s that time …

Spring 2012 is almost here and we’re looking for 3 passionate people for the following roles. The Spring session will run from mid-March through mid-June. You’ll get an immersive 12 weeks to learn and hone your new skills. Here is also some basic information about the program in case you haven’t visited the Program page yet.

What you’ll need to know:

• Internships are typically 12 weeks, but often times get extended for a select few.
• We require a minimum of 16 hours per week.
• This is credit-based only.
• Non-US residents must arrange for a student visa.
• We’re looking for current students or recent grads ideally with some type of web/digital related experience, but creativity, passion and persistence are great qualities too.

Development Intern

So you think you have what it takes to engineer an online product? During your Incubagency program you’ll have those assumptions challenged, re-introduced and refined. From development frameworks to information architecture, you’ll gain a hands-on approach to web standards coding best practices, planning before you build, product development and more.

What types of skills are needed?

• Passion
• The utmost persistence for learning new concepts
• Basic PHP programming
• HTML and CSS
• Coursework in Computer Science or relevant studies

ARE YOU READY? Submit your resume and cover letter here for this role.

Design Intern

Now that you’ve learned the basics in school from typography, branding, color theory and web; it’s time to put that all to work. Transitioning or continuing what you know about designing for web and mobile, you’ll gain a hands-on approach to user experience strategy, campaign creative, product development and more.

What types of skills are needed?

• Passion
• Proactive
• The utmost persistence for learning new concepts
• Adobe Creative Suite – Photoshop, Illustrator
• Basic understanding of web page layout (HTML/CSS is bonus) with User Experience a bonus
• Coursework in Web Design, Multimedia, Illustration, New Media or relevant studies

ARE YOU READY? Submit your resume and cover letter here for this role.

Marketing/Strategy Intern

Social Media may be all the buzz, but understanding the implications of a multichannel approach is key for new marketers. Gone are the days of sitting in forums and learning from the masters. It’s up to you to take hold of your destiny and we’re here to show you the way. From digital marketing strategy to optimizing websites to business intelligence; we send you on your way a hybrid of talent ready for this new digital landscape.

What types of skills are needed?

• Passion
• The utmost persistence for learning new concepts
• Microsoft Office Suite – Word, Excel, Powerpoint
• Basic online marketing concepts – SEO, Paid Search, Social Media, Google Analytics, Email, Media Buying
• Studying in the following areas: Communications, Marketing, Business
• Willingness to learn and thrive in fast-paced environment

ARE YOU READY? Submit your resume and cover letter here for this role.

It’s that time …

Winter 2011 is almost here and we’re looking for 3 passionate people for the following roles. The Winter session will run from mid-January through April. You’ll get an immersive 12 weeks to learn and hone your new skills. Here is also some basic information about the program in case you haven’t visited the Program page yet.

What you’ll need to know:

• Internships are typically 3 months, but can be extended.
• We require a minimum of 24 hours per week.
• We provide a base stipend depending on experience.
• Non-US residents must arrange for a student visa.
• We’re looking for current students or recent grads ideally with some type of web/digital related experience, but creativity, passion and persistence are great qualities too.

Development Intern

So you think you have what it takes to engineer an online product? During your Incubagency program you’ll have those assumptions challenged, re-introduced and refined. From development frameworks to information architecture, you’ll gain a hands-on approach to web standards coding best practices, planning before you build, product development and more.

What types of skills are needed?

• Passion
• The utmost persistence for learning new concepts
• Basic PHP programming
• HTML and CSS
• Coursework in Computer Science or relevant studies

ARE YOU READY? Submit your resume and cover letter here for this role.

Design Intern

Now that you’ve learned the basics in school from typography, branding, color theory and web; it’s time to put that all to work. Transitioning or continuing what you know about designing for web and mobile, you’ll gain a hands-on approach to user experience strategy, campaign creative, product development and more.

What types of skills are needed?

• Passion
• The utmost persistence for learning new concepts
• Adobe Creative Suite – Photoshop, Illustrator
• Basic understanding of web page layout (HTML/CSS is bonus)
• Coursework in Web Design, Multimedia, Illustration, New Media or relevant studies

ARE YOU READY? Submit your resume and cover letter here for this role.

Marketing/Strategy Intern

Social Media may be all the buzz, but understanding the implications of a multichannel approach is key for new marketers. Gone are the days of sitting in forums and learning from the masters. It’s up to you to take hold of your destiny and we’re here to show you the way. From digital marketing strategy to optimizing websites to business intelligence; we send you on your way a hybrid of talent ready for this new digital landscape.

What types of skills are needed?

• Passion
• The utmost persistence for learning new concepts
• Microsoft Office Suite – Word, Excel, Powerpoint
• Basic online marketing concepts – SEO, Paid Search, Social Media, Google Analytics, Email, Media Buying
• Studying in the following areas: Communications, Marketing, Business
• Willingness to learn and thrive in fast-paced environment

ARE YOU READY? Submit your resume and cover letter here for this role.

Google Instant, the mechanism that anticipates the search results as users type in what they will search on Google was announced in the beginning of the month as a monumental change in the internet’s interaction model.

Since the announcement, there has been a lot of talk about how Google Instant will impact the search engine optimization (SEO).

Do you think it can be the end of SEO? In my opinion, NO! But it can change the way it is currently planned – meaning professionals will need to make adjustments and embrace these changes. One example is doing more research to see what are the words that Google is suggesting when users type in keywords. But Google Instant’s suggestions are based on user’s location and search history, and that can be another implication on how the industry will change. An effective way to take advantage of this is to create individual pages for the suggested keywords (which should help optimize the SEO of a web page).

Through a different perspective, Google Instant will potentially affect the user’s behavior when surfing the web. Users will type in even more specific terms when performing a search, which leads to a more targeted audience finding your brand on the web.

The thing is keep working with keywords and adapt the content of your website to the suggested terms on Google instant. Don’t you think?

Here is a little list of Pros and Cons (in my opinion) of Google Instant:

Pros

• Fast – Google said that with the new feature it saves 2 to 5 seconds for each search. That means that in the end of the month you saved a lot of time and money.

• Refined searches – As I said before, the search terms will be more specifics because Google will be suggesting new terms and keywords based on your history and location.

Cons

• Waste of time – The same way that the suggested terms can save you time, it can waste it too. You can end up getting distracted by the terms that looks like what you were looking for but in reality it isn’t.

• Accessibility – Google instant cannot be accessed from mobile browsers or into the search bars located on most browsers’ toolbars.

• SEO – We know that usually users don’t go to the second page of the search, but with Google Instant they are less likely to go to the second page, because of the refined search.

So, what is the impact you think Google Instant will have over SEO?

Working on sketches for the new SchollyLife logo. SchollyLife is a brand extension of Scholarship For Athletes (SFA). SFA prepares students to become scholar athletes.

Doneberry is almost here! Our task management now has a face, a design and its so cool!!  The berries are always doing something fun on the background and the icons will show you how is your project going, it can be done, assigned, need feedback and more, in each step the berry has a different face. Everybody can use Doneberry as it is simple and has cool stuff. The beta page was launched today and we look forward to launch the application soon! Check it out clicking here.

As Chris said on the previous post, we interviewed the person who we’d like to be in the role someday. I chose Ryan and decided to do a survey, on Survey Monkey,with multiple choices about his personal preferrences. Here is the result!

As a part of the internship program, we’ve been asked to sit down with someone in the company who is in a role we’d like to be in some day. Given my recent inclination towards frontend development I chose Ed Fuhrken, DO’s current front-end handyman, and asked him a few questions about his job, his experiences as a web developer and how it all fits together; here are a few of his answers.

How did you first get in to programming?
I had to take a programming class in school and my teacher said i was good at it. Also making my myspace look cool when I was 16.

Would you say you enjoy your work?
Most definitely, its rewarding to see the results of hard work.

Do you still learn new things?
I’m always challenged to learn the latest concepts and overcoming obstacles in building sites.

How does working at DO compare to work you’ve done previously?
I’d only ever done freelance work before working here. Working and collaborating with a team is important and I’m happy that I ended up here specifically cause everyone is cool and knows their stuff.

What are your thought on working for a smaller company like DO vs. a big-name software developer?
I enjoy having a name, not a number. I feel like i’m part of the company more than just a programmer.

To say the least I was happy to hear the answers I got, and I definitely agree that having freedom within your job and being challenged to learn and overcome new things is important. I find myself in a similar mindset as well in that I like to see something tangible. It’s always rewarding to know that a piece of code you’ve written works correctly, but to build and polish the finished product of an application really is exciting to see.

Working collaboratively with the other Incubagents over the past few weeks here at DO has been quite fun. It’s been nice to have some extra input and feedback on the project and I’ve really started to see the larger picture in developing sites and applications for the web. Taking a project from just an idea to a functional, usable and marketable product is by no means an easy task. Something that was emphatically brought to my attention upon review of what my narrow developer’s perspective would tell me is a “finished product”.

Among the proposed alterations included many changes to the interface of DoneBerry, with an emphasis on the users’s experience of the product (i.e. UX). While it may seem like something a designer would be responsible for (at least it did to me) UX is something that cannot be easily accomplished by any one person, and definitely stretches further than making a site look good. UX accounts for the questions that you can’t ask until a product is complete, and couldn’t ask before then, a Catch 22 at its finest. How long will it take a user to view an item? perform an action? find something they’re looking for?

All of these questions may in fact be the most important things to answer when developing a product, as they are what set you apart from your competition. UX takes trial and error, critical thought and innovation. To really streamline a product in to something that is both useful and people enjoy nothing short of a collaborative group effort from a variety of opinions will produce anything beyond mediocre. This eye-opener, that great UX is essential to a great product and indeed is present in virtually all popular software today, is really an area where I hope to improve this product over the coming weeks before its launch.

This past week I’ve been working on Doneberry. I started to do some logo sketches for it as well as the wireframes. As far as the wireframes go, I’ve been learning a lot on how to design them as well as how it will all work on the web. Coming up next is the UI design. Very excited and grateful with everyone in the agency who has helped me with this project. Thanks for this opportunity!! I can’t say it enough.