CTRL+CLICK CAST
75 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 5 years ago - ★★★★★ - 65 ratingsCTRL+CLICK CAST inspects the web for you! We proudly feature diverse voices from the industry’s leaders and innovators, who tackle everything from design, code and content management systems, to culture and business challenges. Our focused, topical discussions teach, inspire and waste no time getting to the heart of the matter. Formerly the EE Podcast, CTRL+CLICK is produced by Bright Umbrella and hosted by industry veterans Lea Alcantara and Emily Lewis.
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Episodes
2016 Year in Review
December 01, 2016 17:59 - 49 minutes - 22.8 MBFor the final episode of 2016, Bright Umbrella assistant Erin Lewis joins us for one last Year in Review. We look back at all we learned in business, technology and life this past year. As we reflect on recurring and changing goals, we also address what we hope for 2017 with conviction and solidarity. And finally, the year’s Rapidfire Questions analyzed! Do pancakes triumph over waffles? Tune in to find out! We’re on hiatus until the new year (tune back in January 19, 2017), and we wi...
Ecommerce Shipping & Fulfillment with Noah Bernsohn & Peter Compernolle
November 17, 2016 17:59 - 59 minutes - 27.2 MBIt’s simple: Ecommerce development is complicated. There are a lot of moving parts, from understanding business rules and tribal knowledge to designing for user experience and building internal systems that work. We tackle all of these points with Noah Bersohn and Peter Compernolle, with a focus on shipping and fulfillment. Noah and Peter share two client case studies, each with unique shipping and fulfillment needs. They detail their approach, which starts with a strong focus on disco...
Marketing for Web Freelancers and Agencies with Ilise Benun
November 03, 2016 16:59 - 59 minutes - 27.5 MBDo you have a marketing plan? If you’re a tiny freelancer or agency, the answer may be no — and can be contributing to your business’s feast and famine cycle! Marketing Mentor Ilise Benun helps peel back the realities of marketing to help your creative business. We discuss the three main marketing techniques to use, specific tips and examples from real-world clients (including Bright Umbrella!), and the mind shift required to be better at marketing your services to get the clients and ...
Securing Site Content with Rachel Andrew
October 20, 2016 16:59 - 55 minutes - 25.4 MBEver needed to build a login-protected “member portal”? Or support subscriptions for digital downloads? Then you’ve secured site site content. But have you covered all the bases? Rachel Andrew joins the show to explain the what, why and how of secure sites. We each share real-world client examples, particularly in context with content management systems. Rachel specifically details how Perch CMS supports secure content, including using a paywall with Perch Shop. She also explains the c...
Overhauling Epicurious with Eric Gillin
October 06, 2016 16:59 - 47 minutes - 22 MBHow do you rehaul a 21-year-old brand? Eric Gillin explains how he helped relaunch Epicurious’ site through a phased, practical approach. We focus on the most important features of the site and which tools helped narrow these assumptions down. We talk about the difficulty of launching new features on a site with exponential visitor growth, developer impact, user experience, and parsing criticism. We also chat about their upcoming mobile app, how it differs from the site, as well as the...
Copywriting and the User Experience with Stephanie Morillo
September 22, 2016 16:59 - 56 minutes - 25.9 MBIs copy the same as content? Can copy influence design? Professional copywriter Stephanie Morillo joins the show to explain copywriting and how it impacts user experience. She shares examples of copy on the web — such as headings, form labels, alerts and notifications — and details how copy helps you connect with your audience and support your brand. Stephanie talks about where copywriting fits into the project process, as well as the importance of collaboration with stakeholders. She ...
Discovery Only with J Cornelius
September 08, 2016 16:59 - 48 minutes - 22.4 MBEver dive into a project and realize the scope is completely off? How about realizing the client is the wrong fit? Paid discovery projects help minimize these issues. J Cornelius of Nine Labs explains how being more focused and intentional with a small discovery project benefits both you and your client’s business. We chat the various ways discovery projects can be executed, what they include, why they’re important, and how it sets the tone for the rest of the project. < Downl...
Performance Optimization: A Tale of Two EE Sites
August 25, 2016 16:59 - 1 hour - 34.1 MBPerformance matters. Tune in to hear real-world examples on how Lea and Emily tackle their client site speed issues! From fixing emergencies to thoughtful rebuilds, we discuss the specific ways we manage client expectations, budgets and resources while isolating bottlenecks. We reveal real solutions to fixing slow EE sites from different angles, including front-end, and discuss why it’s important to fix, test, and review in the first place! < Download MP3 >  ...
The QA Process with Lewis Francis
August 11, 2016 16:59 - 50 minutes - 46.5 MBQuality Assurance isn’t just testing. QA is a process that spans the lifecyle of a project. Lewis Francis, Director of Quality Assurance at Threespot, joins the show with a primer on QA for websites and apps. He talks about the difference between quality assurance and quality control, and explains where QA should fit into the project cycle. Lewis details how budget can dictate the scope of QA, but also the elements that are important for any QA process. And he shares a bunch of great t...
Data-driven Design with Matthew Oliphant
July 28, 2016 16:59 - 1 hour - 28.8 MBUX expert Matthew Oliphant stops by the show to help define what data-driven design even means! We discuss testing assumptions before a project begins, as well as how UX research affects process and the project lifecycle. From critical business decisions to design and development, we chat about different ways to test a website or app, real-world scenarios of testing, and how to make sense of it all to fulfill client and user goals. < Download MP3 > &n...
Landing Pages & CMS Workflows with Shawn Maida
July 14, 2016 16:59 - 1 hour - 29 MBLanding pages are bound to come up for almost any type of client. How can we designers and developers help clients reach their conversion goals, while making it easy for them to create these landing pages? Special guest Shawn Maida returns to the show to discuss how his company uses landing pages themselves, as well as how they build landing pages for clients. We run the gamut of different types of landing pages, as well as different client goals. We discuss solutions we’ve built in Ex...
Developing a Signature Design Style
June 30, 2016 16:58 - 1 hour - 31.8 MBTired of websites looking the same? So are we! Hosts Lea and Emily discuss how signature design style benefits designers and their clients. We weigh in on the pros and cons, how to find a signature design style and apply it, as well as how other phases of a project cycle is affected by a design style. Lea also shares some resources to help designers create their own signature design style. < Download MP3 > < Listen on ctrlclickcast.com ...
Emotional Intelligence in Design with Beth Dean
June 16, 2016 16:59 - 56 minutes - 26 MBWhen we go online, the stresses and triggers of our offline lives go with us. So the apps, sites and technology we use online need to account for those stressors. Special guest Beth Dean returns to the show, this time to talk about emotional intelligence in design. She shares her own lessons learned working at Facebook, trying to anticipate and avoid the friction that can occur when the design process doesn’t consider the human factor. Beth also offers tips for how to be more emotional...
Connecting to 3rd Party APIs with Mitchell Kimbrough
June 02, 2016 16:59 - 59 minutes - 27.4 MBWebsites are no longer silos. There is an increasing need to connect various services together through their APIs. Solspace founder and developer Mitchell Kimbrough returns to the show to explain how he approaches requests for 3rd-party API integration. He shares what a good API looks like, emphasizes a discovery-first approach, goes through technical tips like his “crud” script to help test assumptions and troubleshoot, but most importantly, shares scenarios on how to navigate the hum...
Intro to SVGs with Brenda Storer
May 19, 2016 16:59 - 56 minutes - 26.2 MBSVGs aren’t just another image format. They are code. They are infinitely scalable. And they can be manipulated with CSS and JS to create both subtle and dramatic interface experiences. Designer and front-end dev Brenda Storer joins the show to give us a primer on scalable vector graphics, from how they are different from the familiar PNG, JPG and GIF, to browser support, to the underlying code elements and attributes. Brenda offers recommendations for optimizing SVGs and making them m...
Progressive Enhancement, Revisited, with Aaron Gustafson
May 05, 2016 16:58 - 1 hour - 38.1 MBWhere does progressive enhancement fit in the web today? Developer Aaron Gustafson, author of Adaptive Web Design, returns to the show to update us on how progressive enhancement fits for today’s mobile web design & development workflow. Not only do we go through the technical specifics of progressive enhancement, we chat about how design and user experience work hand-in-hand alongside the business benefits inherent when building an inclusive site or app. < Download MP3 &g...
Platform Agnostic Add-on Dev with Eric Lamb
April 21, 2016 16:59 - 55 minutes - 25.7 MBAn add-on with a single code base that supports five different CMSs? That’s the unicorn of platform-agnostic add-on dev, and it is just as illusive. Special guest Eric Lamb shares how he developed an efficient, smart approach to porting his popular ExpressionEngine add-on, Backup Pro, to four other content management systems (with more planned). The key? Abstraction. He also details the nuances of working with different communities and submitting add-ons to different marketplaces, as w...
Time-Saving Tools for Running a Small Business
April 07, 2016 16:59 - 1 hour - 40.9 MBThere are a lot of moving parts to running a business — how do you get through it all in an efficient manner? Emily and Lea go through the tools, resources, and services Bright Umbrella utilizes to run a business more smoothly. We chat about past and current experiences with task management and business development, invoices and time tracking, and everything in between — all to show you how to help you save time (and money!) for your business! < Download MP3 > &n...
Build Automation Using Gulp with Dan Tello
March 24, 2016 16:59 - 50 minutes - 23.3 MBA good workflow means fewer hiccups in a project build. An automated workflow means fewer hiccups and faster production! Front-end developer Dan Tello joins the show to share how he and his team at Viget use build tools and task runners to automate their front-end (and CMS!) development. Dan details his process learning Grunt, then making the switch to Gulp and why he prefers it. He shares his Gulp Starter repo and details the various tools he uses for the different assets he builds. W...
Color with Geri Coady
March 10, 2016 17:59 - 57 minutes - 26.6 MBChoosing and applying colors on the web can get complicated quickly, especially when considering user experience and accessibility. Don’t rely on assumptions, urges designer and illustrator Geri Coady! She shares tips on how to make informed design choices that improve a site’s interactivity for all users. We talk about color’s impact on a site, compare color applications to other industries, and share tools on how to test color decisions that enhances a web experience. < Down...
Large EE Sites, Revisited, with Travis Smith
February 25, 2016 17:59 - 55 minutes - 25.6 MBExpressionEngine for large-scale sites? Yes, says EE expert Travis Smith, and he’s got the statistics to back it up! Travis returns to the show as we revisit one of our EE Podcast episodes on large EE sites to discuss what has changed and what’s stayed the same. Travis details his updated statistics about the largest EE sites on the web today, and discusses the factors that make a site “large.” He also shares tips for efficient development, good infrastructure and mitigating the challe...
Flexbox with Zoe Gillenwater
February 11, 2016 17:58 - 53 minutes - 24.9 MBCurious about flexbox? Web designer, developer and author Zoe Gillenwater says the flexible box model ranks high among what seasoned web developers should learn now. We discuss what the hype is about, how it differs from other layout methods, and where it’s best used. We also talk about the changing landscape of layout methods overall, and Zoe shares simple and complex use cases for flexbox. < Download MP3 > < Listen on ctrlclickcast.co...
Practical Pricing with Brad Weaver
January 28, 2016 17:59 - 1 hour - 31.9 MBAre you pricing your services correctly? Do you know what it costs to just maintain your business? Are you making a profit? Do you know how to correctly estimate? How do you talk to clients and prospects about budgets and costs? If you work for yourself and you aren’t asking yourselves these questions, then you may be hurting the future of your business. Special guest Brad Weaver joins the show to offer practical pricing tips and strategies that can help your business today—as in right...
Overwhelmed by Code with Susan Robertson
January 14, 2016 17:59 - 1 hour - 29.4 MBThe fast-paced nature of the web industry can cause confusion as to how to prioritize what to learn, especially if a framework or technique is obsolete in a year. Our first guest of 2016, front-end developer Susan Robertson, urges us to take a step back before immediately diving into something new. We discuss why we think there’s such a panic to learn new things, how to avoid this panic, and also share tips on how evaluate what is actually worth investing time to learn. < Down...
2015 Year in Review
December 03, 2015 17:59 - 57 minutes - 26.5 MBFor our 2015 season finale, we look back on the past year and share some of our lessons learned with our Bright Umbrella intern Erin! From tech to business to life, we share the important lessons we learned this year, along with our goals for next. We also take a look back at our 2015 guests’ answers to our Rapidfire 10 Questions, and then turn the questions on ourselves! We’re on a hiatus until the new year (tune back in January 14, 2016), and wish you all the happiest of holidays! ...