Here's a wordle of my latest blog postings, heavy on the SLA stuff. Thanks to nengard for the info on the tool; it's pretty nifty!
We'll return to posting about librarians, pop culture, and systems stuff tomorrow :-)
Showing posts with label webbishness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label webbishness. Show all posts
June 30, 2008
April 24, 2008
Today: Made of Win
Today has been a pretty good day.
1) After battling the front page display of my new web site for a while, I threw it out to a local CSS expert (thanks, Mark!) and to the Drupal4Lib community. (I wanted dual background images, one at the upper left and one at the bottom right, and no matter what I did the front_page module was only showing one image.) I got a lot of great suggestions to fidget with things and arrangements, which led me to think about swapping which images were called from where. When I flipped the body and wrapper background images, it worked! Not only did it work, it works across every browser I've tested so far, even IE (!!!!), and under both Windows and Linux. (I'll test from the Mac when I get home, but I expect it'll be fine.) Needless to say, a happy dance was performed :-D
2) I got to play with javascript and replaced the static image on our main web page with a script that randomly displays one of eleven images. Makes me happy, and more importantly, it seems to have made the scientists and directorate happy. Thanks, JavaScript Source!
3) I get to shop for all the table decorations for the big "Under the Sea" party at SLA. Hee hee!
Currently 84° and sunny. (expect to see that a lot in the future, ha ha)
1) After battling the front page display of my new web site for a while, I threw it out to a local CSS expert (thanks, Mark!) and to the Drupal4Lib community. (I wanted dual background images, one at the upper left and one at the bottom right, and no matter what I did the front_page module was only showing one image.) I got a lot of great suggestions to fidget with things and arrangements, which led me to think about swapping which images were called from where. When I flipped the body and wrapper background images, it worked! Not only did it work, it works across every browser I've tested so far, even IE (!!!!), and under both Windows and Linux. (I'll test from the Mac when I get home, but I expect it'll be fine.) Needless to say, a happy dance was performed :-D
2) I got to play with javascript and replaced the static image on our main web page with a script that randomly displays one of eleven images. Makes me happy, and more importantly, it seems to have made the scientists and directorate happy. Thanks, JavaScript Source!
3) I get to shop for all the table decorations for the big "Under the Sea" party at SLA. Hee hee!
Currently 84° and sunny. (expect to see that a lot in the future, ha ha)
October 29, 2007
IL2007: New Rules for Web Design
Jeff Wisniewski, U Pittsburgh
- Use the several decades worth of research into usability and design to shortcut current design discussions as much as possible
- can narrow down to 'what is best practice"?
Simplicity rules... but... many library sites are multi-function ones with many different types of information, so finding a balance between too little and too much is important
"the time of simplicity, if it ever existed, is over"
design matters A LOT: first impressions, etc! Design for what your users are doing (this is important!).
Rule of 7 (not so much a rule as a guideline)
- well organized
- well labeled
3-click rule... is DEAD. users will click as long as they feel they're getting where they need to be.
Design for multi-platforms and don't design for a restricted 800x600 screen - be more fluid and use flexible design (CSS media types)
RIP web-safe colors? "most computers today have the ability to display millions of different colors"
For redesign of your site, look at other libraries BUT ALSO look outside library land! see what other sites are providing.
How often to redesign? Constantly - iterative, evolutionary change is good. Revolutionary change is hard on the users (and boy, haven't we all seen that!)
A/B testing (post one design for a little while, then a slightly different design, and compare user inputs)
Follow your own naming conventions! (Whatever makes most sense to your users)
...But - follow established standards and conventions.
Don't assume all users have speedy connections, and watch download/display times.
Must support all browsers for basic content! Accessibility GOOD. (Watch the added content.)
"graded browser support" - can tweak CSS to display different levels of content based on browser in use -
The time has truly come to ditch table-based layout!
Popups still bad - blocked by default by most browsers today.
Mouseover menus... raise many usability considerations. Not scannable so could impact that first impression.
Is scrolling still bad? Users scroll if there's a clue that there's something "below the fold" - not as much as an issue these days.
Identified pictures of people increase trust and credibility
RIA - Rich Internet Application
- Use the several decades worth of research into usability and design to shortcut current design discussions as much as possible
- can narrow down to 'what is best practice"?
Simplicity rules... but... many library sites are multi-function ones with many different types of information, so finding a balance between too little and too much is important
"the time of simplicity, if it ever existed, is over"
design matters A LOT: first impressions, etc! Design for what your users are doing (this is important!).
Rule of 7 (not so much a rule as a guideline)
- well organized
- well labeled
3-click rule... is DEAD. users will click as long as they feel they're getting where they need to be.
Design for multi-platforms and don't design for a restricted 800x600 screen - be more fluid and use flexible design (CSS media types)
RIP web-safe colors? "most computers today have the ability to display millions of different colors"
For redesign of your site, look at other libraries BUT ALSO look outside library land! see what other sites are providing.
How often to redesign? Constantly - iterative, evolutionary change is good. Revolutionary change is hard on the users (and boy, haven't we all seen that!)
A/B testing (post one design for a little while, then a slightly different design, and compare user inputs)
Follow your own naming conventions! (Whatever makes most sense to your users)
...But - follow established standards and conventions.
Don't assume all users have speedy connections, and watch download/display times.
Must support all browsers for basic content! Accessibility GOOD. (Watch the added content.)
"graded browser support" - can tweak CSS to display different levels of content based on browser in use -
The time has truly come to ditch table-based layout!
Popups still bad - blocked by default by most browsers today.
Mouseover menus... raise many usability considerations. Not scannable so could impact that first impression.
Is scrolling still bad? Users scroll if there's a clue that there's something "below the fold" - not as much as an issue these days.
Identified pictures of people increase trust and credibility
RIA - Rich Internet Application
August 21, 2007
QuickieBlog
Just a fleeting post today...
* Still having fun with Drupal. The joys of the last couple of days: URL aliasing, the glossary and swfupload modules, and figure captions. (OK, that last one isn't quite so joyful, but it will be soon.)
* I recently subscribed to the Journal of Web Librarianship (starting with Volume 1, Number 1, which I just finished reading today, just in time for Number 2 to arrive) and I luuuuurve it. I now aspire to publish in it someday.
* Also recently subscribed to, but I'm two issues behind on reading: Library Hi Tech. I fell in love with it just for their recent issue on content management systems.
* I've only just this instant realized I missed the deadline (it was Monday) for getting my slides in for the proceedings for Internet Librarian! AAUGH! Drat, drat, drat... AND I forgot to vote in the rain game today!
It's an even 100° and I'm going home now, dang it.
* Still having fun with Drupal. The joys of the last couple of days: URL aliasing, the glossary and swfupload modules, and figure captions. (OK, that last one isn't quite so joyful, but it will be soon.)
* I recently subscribed to the Journal of Web Librarianship (starting with Volume 1, Number 1, which I just finished reading today, just in time for Number 2 to arrive) and I luuuuurve it. I now aspire to publish in it someday.
* Also recently subscribed to, but I'm two issues behind on reading: Library Hi Tech. I fell in love with it just for their recent issue on content management systems.
* I've only just this instant realized I missed the deadline (it was Monday) for getting my slides in for the proceedings for Internet Librarian! AAUGH! Drat, drat, drat... AND I forgot to vote in the rain game today!
It's an even 100° and I'm going home now, dang it.
August 16, 2007
A short but very deeply felt rant
I really, truly loathe web registration forms that will not work in any browser except IE... and said loathing only deepens when there is no notification of such anywhere on the page, and you don't find out until after you've filled out the bazillion form fields and tried to submit it.
If I didn't have to use this particular company's site to request an upgrade for their product for work purposes (no, you can't do it via email, nor via the program itself), I'd refuse to, and send a nasty email to the company. Arrgh.
If I didn't have to use this particular company's site to request an upgrade for their product for work purposes (no, you can't do it via email, nor via the program itself), I'd refuse to, and send a nasty email to the company. Arrgh.
May 2, 2007
Web Design Survey
"People who make websites have been at it for more than a dozen years, yet almost nothing is known, statistically, about our profession." Want more data? Then contribute some data! A List Apart's first annual Web Design Survey is now available - go take it!
March 22, 2007
Coming Soon: A Smarter Web
A neat read by John Borland in Technology Review, "Part I: A Smarter Web" discusses how we've progressed from Melvil Dewey towards the Semantic Web. It's great to read about how Eric Miller (a big kahuna in the Semantic Web world) got that our (that is, librarians') skill at organizing information is necessary to bring some kind of order to the chaos that is Web-based data.
"Part II" continues with a discussion of the issues facing bringing the Semantic Web into the real world - lots of folks are doing lots of things but most of it seems to still be behind the corporate scenes. And there's a big question as to whether the unstructured data of the Web can, or will, ever truly become structured data. It'll be interesting to see what happens in the next few years.
It's a brisk, windy 69° right now - and we had rain last night, and the promise of more to come today and tomorrow. Hurrah!
"Part II" continues with a discussion of the issues facing bringing the Semantic Web into the real world - lots of folks are doing lots of things but most of it seems to still be behind the corporate scenes. And there's a big question as to whether the unstructured data of the Web can, or will, ever truly become structured data. It'll be interesting to see what happens in the next few years.
It's a brisk, windy 69° right now - and we had rain last night, and the promise of more to come today and tomorrow. Hurrah!
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