Our Blog

Our blog covers the gamut – a new employee Q&As, opinion pieces about web design, cool & new things happening in the tech industry, and so much more. We know the web, and we want to share news and helpful tips with you so you can get the most out of your website – even if you don't have a website built by Visionary.

We Love Our Clients: Leaning Tower of Pizza

Visionary Services Published by: Visionary Services Published on: Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Kevin Harrington utilizes a hands-on approach to business, where hard work, handshakes and smart digital marketing practices are the keys to success.    We recently started working with Leaning Tower of Pizza to refresh their website and develop a digital marketing strategy, which means we've been working side by side with the restaurant's owner, Kevin...

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Making an Animated SVG Checkbox

Ryan Young Published by: Ryan Young Published on: Tuesday, April 12, 2016

While watching MSNBC cover the results of the recent political primaries, I noticed the animated graphics used for their scrolling marquee. As winners were projected, a little animated checkbox would appear next to the candidate’s name and photo. It was such a subtle element compared to all the other visuals. But the way the box and check mark drew itself on the screen was captivatingly...

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Ransomeware: Are You Safe?

Visionary Services Published by: Visionary Services Published on: Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Have you heard the news about the ransomware attack that crippled MedStar Health, one of the largest healthcare providers in Maryland and Washington, D.C.? The virus reduced their operations to pen and paper efforts after its networks were attacked by the virus, which encrypts files on computer systems and holds the data on them hostage until the victim pays...

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Get to Know: Digital Marketing Specialist Belle Du Chene

Visionary Services Published by: Visionary Services Published on: Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Start off by telling everyone about yourself: Even though I’m a native Iowan, I’ve worked and lived in a few big cities, so I’m a complicated mix of metropolitan vigor and small town nice. My father is 90% left-brained and my mother is 90% right, so the mashup explains my widespread and sometimes contradicting skillset. I tend to speak in hashtags, which just confuses everyone...

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How I (Painstakingly) Made My Own Virtual Reality Viewer

Ryan Young Published by: Ryan Young Published on: Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Virtual reality. The phrase alone conjures images of visor-like goggle helmets and poorly animated computer graphics. Sure, at one point, the technology seemed like pure science fiction. But the reality of virtual reality is that it’s actually fully developed and being used in a variety of ways today. It’s been predicted that virtual reality will become the new way people watch...

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Get to Know: Project Lead Krista Scheidecker

Visionary Services Published by: Visionary Services Published on: Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Start of by telling everyone about yourself: I grew up in northern Iowa and was the sixth person in my family to graduate from Iowa State University. I also married an ISU grad, and we live in West Des Moines. What is your professional background? My degree is in Logistics and Supply Chain, and I spent six years working for a local third-party...

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Get to Know: Software Developer Dakota Reid

Visionary Services Published by: Visionary Services Published on: Tuesday, March 1, 2016

What is your professional background? I don't have much of a professional background. When I was in high school I worked for Tasteful Dinners as a food prep. Then I worked at Kemin in the Quality Control lab for two summers. Working at Visionary is the first real job that I have had. What are your hobbies outside of work? I like to play on my...

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What is HTTPS and SSL?

Ryan Young Published by: Ryan Young Published on: Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Cyber security tends to be a fleeting topic in the relatively grand plan for a website project. Like insurance, cyber security is something you don’t appreciate until you need it. When data breaches at major corporations are reported seemingly a few times each year, it’s easy to take a step and say those famous last words: It’ll never happen to me. “Of course they were hacked,” you might say....

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How Microsoft's End to IE8/9/10 Support Will Impact Your Website

Ryan Young Published by: Ryan Young Published on: Tuesday, January 12, 2016

After today, don’t expect any more security updates or feature enhancements for old versions of Internet Explorer. Microsoft is stopping support for Internet Explorer 8, 9, and 10 and urging Windows users to upgrade to Internet Explorer 11, the latest and last version of the popular Microsoft browser, or move to Windows 10 where they can use Edge. The announcement is...

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Web designer Vs. Web developer - What’s the difference?

Taylor Hilsabeck Published by: Taylor Hilsabeck Published on: Tuesday, January 5, 2016

“So you write the code?”“Well some of it… HTML/CSS, the way the webpage looks.”“What did you major in again?” Going home for the holidays inevitably results in explaining my role at Visionary to my family. Many are still unfamiliar with the labels of a developer versus a designer. Generally, a web designer’s focus is the look and feel of a website,...

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Social Media Channels - Which one is right for your business?

Visionary Services Published by: Visionary Services Published on: Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Should your business be on social media? Absolutely. But should you have an account on every platform? Not necessarily. Visionary’s Production Specialist Taylor Hilsabeck, and Project Lead Ryan Young profiled the top five social media channels to help you determine which one fits your business needs. InstagramWhat is it?Instagram is a mobile photo sharing service and social network with high levels of...

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Get to Know: Project Lead Stacy Shutjer

Visionary Services Published by: Visionary Services Published on: Tuesday, December 8, 2015

If you could be one of your fellow Visionaries for a day, who would it be and why? Ian Leckie. Why? Just look at that glorious beard. What have you learned while working at Visionary? Anything and everything that I know about computers, I probably learned here. I started working as an Office Coordinator at Visionary a few months after I graduated from...

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Get to Know: Software Engineer Ian Leckie

Visionary Services Published by: Visionary Services Published on: Tuesday, December 1, 2015

A lot of the people in the office like to put on their headphone and listen to music while they're working. What are some of the songs you listen to when you need to get 'in the zone' and hammer out a project? Mike Watt's entire catalog. DJ Shadow - Building Steam With a Grain of Salt Torche – Kicking What advice would you give to someone...

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Treat SEO Like a Client Referral: Earn It

Ryan Young Published by: Ryan Young Published on: Tuesday, November 17, 2015

How much is a customer referral worth to you? Likely a lot, right? A referral means someone you previously worked with loved you and your business so much they wanted someone they know to benefit from everything you offer. Now, how much is a search engine ranking worth? More than a Yelp review? Less than a Facebook ad? Is it any different from a customer...

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Visionary Leadership

Taylor Hilsabeck Published by: Taylor Hilsabeck Published on: Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Visionary employees are lucky to work for a company that invests in the whole person, not just who we are during office hours. This year, 8 of us women were given the opportunity to attend the Iowa Women Lead Change Conference on October 28th at the Community Choice Credit Union Iowa Events Center. The full-day conference is for women to invest in leadership skills and provide an...

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