How to Create and Promote a Blog in Eight Easy Steps

A new buzzword you should know about is 'blog' or 'web log', meaning web log, digital journal, or online diary. Blogs are the Next Big Thing to hit the Internet, after conventional Web Sites.

Streight, Steven. Usability Interface (2005). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design>Blogging

How to Determine Monthly Web Site Visitors

If you pay another business to host your Web site, give them a call. Tell them you want monthly traffic reports delivered to you each month.

Costello, Rick. STC Chicago (2003). Articles>Web Design>Assessment>Log Analysis

How to Make a Faceted Classification and Put It On the Web

Describes when to use faceted classification on web sites and provides instruction for creating a faceted classification system.

Denton, William. William Denton (2003). Articles>Information Design>Web Design

How to Make Wireless Directory Services Useful

Wireless directory services need to recognize both the limitations and the benefits of mobile phones, by making search results more to-the-point and context-sensitive.

Baker, Adam. Merges.net (2001). Articles>Information Design>Wireless Web

How to Podcast with Skype

So you want to be a podcast superstar? Well, while this article might not make you a superstar, the aim is to help you record quality audio using Skype. Skype recording can be a tricky, but the benefits far outweigh the time investment it takes to learn. We use it on the Web 2.0 Show podcast to capture our interview audio and it has allowed us to interview some very big names without being in our interviewee’s location. Or running up large phone bills. This article will cover both Mac and Windows based recording techniques, and we will post follow-up articles covering post-production of the audio and how to upload and track your podcast.

Owens, Josh. Vitamin (2008). Articles>Web Design>Streaming>Podcasting

How to Present a Business Case for Web Site Investments

How can you convince others that Web investments are a wise decision in a slow economy?

Costello, Rick. STC Chicago (2003). Articles>Web Design>Project Management>Business Case

How to Select Your Web Conferencing Tool

New conferencing and collaboration solutions are being announced at the pace of one or more tools per week. New versions and upgrades are promoted even more frequently, and in this avalanche of "this is the best, don't look anywhere else" claims, it is hard to distinguish the good from the average. How should you select your web conferencing tool? Which companies are more reliable and how do you find out? How can you be sure you will not be disappointed? These are tough questions to answer, as there are a million vendors out there and an army of supposed experts all claiming to have the best solution while offering different ones.

Good, Robin. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Web Design>Videoconferencing>Software

How to Share Everything with Everyone (well, a few things anyway)

We're moving toward a shared network model, where people publish and subscribe. The really appealing sites integrate feeds for a community of users in an invisible, seamless way, making it easy to see what we're all up to.

Johnson, Tom H. Tech Writer Voices (2008). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>RSS

How to Write A Better Weblog

Great writing can’t be taught, but bad writing can be avoided. Mahoney shares tips that may enhance the writing on your personal site.

Mahoney, Dennis A. List Apart, A (2002). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Blogging

How to Write a Summary, and Why

The first text in most web and intranet pages should be a summary of 1-2 sentences. That's a good rule of thumb. The starter-summary has several important functions.

McAlpine, Rachel. Quality Web Content (2005). Articles>Web Design>Writing

HTML 5 and XHTML 2

While the intention of both HTML V5 and XHTML V2 is to improve on the existing versions, the approaches the developers chose to make those improvements is very different. And with differing philosophies come distinct results. For the first time in many years, the direction of upcoming browser versions is uncertain. Uncover the bigger picture behind the details of these two standards.

de Jonge, Adriaan. IBM (2007). Articles>Web Design>Standards>HTML5

HTML 5 Timeline

Firefox 2.0.0.10 broke its implementation of the HTML5 canvas element and guess what, the world noticed. Actual websites started breaking because they relied on the canvas functionality to work. The point is that we expect implementations of HTML5 to happen way before the fifteen year mark. In fact, the fifteen year mark includes having all features at least implemented in two different (shipping) products in the same way with the additional requirement that they have a decent amount of market penetration. This means that when the specification finally makes it to W3C Recommendation it has already proven itself.

van Kesteren, Anne. annevankesteren.nl (2007). Articles>Web Design>Standards>HTML5

Review: HTML and Web Artistry 2: More Than Code  

Recommends to get this book from the library rather than purchase it. Its downfalls (typos, superficial treatment of some topics, and references to quickly outdated technology) will prevent it from becoming a timeless book in my professional collection.

Miller, Tasha. Technical Communication Online (2004). Articles>Reviews>Web Design

HTML Applications: Introducing the HTA File

The letters HTA are meant to stand for HTML Application. The technology was developed by Microsoft, so is a proprietary concept, and only works in conjunction with Internet Explorer (specifically version 5 and above).

HyperWrite (2005). Articles>Web Design>Standards>Microsoft Windows

HTML Conversion Tools: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly  

The Internet has taken the world by storm. It is now one of the most widely used sources of information available. Every day high-technology companies are finding new ways to use the Internet for advancement in their fields. Though getting a perfect conversion without added steps is the dream for all writers, this is not possible. HTML Conversion tools such as HTML Transit 2.0, Web Publisher 1.1, and FrontPage can help decrease the time needed to make great looking paper documents into great looking web pages. The tool a company chooses should be based on its needs, budget, and the time allowed for tweaking.

Laurent, J. Suzanna and Candie McKee. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Web Design>HTML>Software

HTML Museum: Font and Page Size

I want to spend some time on a series of articles on web design usability practices. I call this series, the HTML Museum. I hope to update it with articles that address past web design practices and why they are no longer in use.The first exhibit deals with font, text and page size.

Lanier, Clinton R. sense and usability (2008). Articles>Web Design>Typography>History

HTML, XHTML, Semantics and the Future of the Web

Clarifies exactly what XHTML is, explains why you need to be learning about it from today, and steps through the process of transitioning to the standards based way of marking up for the web, and beyond.

Allsopp, John. Western Civilization (2005). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>XHTML

HTML: Making the Move  

HTML is perhaps the most discussed topic in technical communications since the invention of the word processor. Interest in the Internet and the World Wide Web has exploded beyond anyone’s expectations (and perhaps their imagination as well). Microsoft has announced that they are moving away from Rich Text Format (Rw) as the source format for their Windowsbased online help systems, and Netscape is in the process of developing a cross-platform online help API that is also based on HTML. The question seems no longer to be whether or not to make the move to HTML, but when to make the move.

Radecki, Steven Lewis. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Web Design>HTML

httplib2: HTTP Persistence and Authentication

In this latest Restful Web column, Joe Gregorio explains HTTP persistent connections, pipelining, and the sad state of HTTP authentication.

Gregorio, Joe. XML.com (2006). Articles>Web Design>XML>Security

Hypermedia and the Semantic Web: A Research Agenda  

Until recently, the Semantic Web was little more than a name for the next-generation Web infrastructure as envisioned by its inventor, Tim Berners-Lee. With the introduction of XML and RDF, and new developments such as RDF Schema and DAML+OIL, the Semantic Web is rapidly taking shape. This paper gives an overview of the state-of-the-art in Semantic Web technology, the key relationships with traditional hypermedia research, and a comprehensive reference list to various sets of literature (hypertext, Web and Semantic Web). A research agenda describes the open research issues in the development of the Semantic Web from the perspective of hypermedia research.

van Ossenbruggen, Jacco, Lynda Hardman and Lloyd Rutledge. Journal of Digital Information (2003). Articles>Web Design>Metadata>Semantic

Hypertext for Handling Conceptual Material

Turning 'help' systems and 'browsers' into robust structured-document viewers: the DocBrowser.

Hoffman, Michael. Hypertext Navigation. Articles>Documentation>Web Design>Web Browsers

I Know What You Mean!   

According to experts, the Semantic Web, an enhancement of the conventional web, is paving the way for new functionalities in future, web-based applications. The possible scenarios that we could face are reminiscent of fiction and cinema, where you just need to think of the question for which we are seeking answers. An invisible assistant would then perform the search.

Sieber, Tanja and Bartz, Wolfgang. tekom (2006). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>Semantic

IBM Servlet-Based Content Creation Framework

This framework provides an easily-used and easily-understood way of developing Web-based applications. The framework not only supports but also enforces the complete separation of content and presentation. Its simple and elegant design does not hide the familiar underlying servlet infrastructure.

Pawlitzek, Rene. IBM (2005). Articles>Web Design>Server Side Includes>Java

The Iceberg Analogy of Usability

Developers sometimes ask which aspects of look and feel contribute most to the overall usability of an application or Web site. They are typically surprised when I answer that the 'look and feel' aspects aren't the major contributors at all. Look and feel have been popular discussion topics for many years, and some developers have proposed various schemes purporting to allow an easy swap of one look and feel for another. They were perhaps compelled to this thinking to compensate for an inadequate understanding of their users. Around 1990, I became alarmed by the popularity of design architectures advocating paradigms like the User Interface Management Systems (UIMS) that enable a pluggable look and feel. Many of my colleagues and I felt that look and feel represented only the tip of the iceberg. We felt that the set of concepts users must learn and understand to use a product or Web site effectively is actually the most important factor.

Berry, Dick. IBM (2001). Articles>Usability>User Experience>Web Design

Ideological Discourses in the Making of Internet Career Sites

This paper examines the ideological discourses evident in related categories of commercial World Wide Web sites during the last year of the dot-com bubble (1995-2001). It analyzes two collections of employment-related Web pages: third-party Internet career sites (such as Monster.com) and the employee recruitment sections of corporate Web sites (such as General Electric). After reviewing the historical development of Internet use for job search purposes and the effect on labor market dynamics, I estimate the extent to which discourses of community permeate these sites by using methodologies that focus on the content of Web sites and the messages conveyed by advertisements. The conclusions highlight the importance of considering ideological constructions in grasping the meaning of “discursive domains” among commercial sites on the Web.

Marschall, Daniel. JCMC (2002). Articles>Web Design