Gantt to Glory: Evolving from Project Management to Successful Web Operations

Is the sheer possession of a PMP intended to be the Holy Grail of successful web projects, known to fail at a startling rate, or simply a way to divorce oneself from whatever outcome may result from the web project?

Podnar, Kristina. Content Wrangler, The (2008). Articles>Web Design>Project Management>Planning

The Quiet Death of the Major Re-Launch

Companies would often hire new outside firms to create and execute these new designs, abandoning the firm that made the previous design. The new firms would try to top the existing design with something dramatically different and attention-grabbing. After all, if you can't notice any change, why did it cost so much?

Spool, Jared M. User Interface Engineering (2003). Articles>Web Design>Planning

Thinking in the Right Terms: 7 Components for a Successful Web Site Redesign

Teams who focus on the long term are far more likely to create designs that really pay off for the organization. Short-term thinking gets the design done, but the team ends up doing it all over again months down the road. Long-term thinking deals with the inevitability of changes and turns the site into a living, breathing entity that grows with the organization's needs.

Spool, Jared M. User Interface Engineering (2007). Articles>Web Design>Planning

Wireframing With Patterns

Wireframes can comprise many different patterns, each of which is a discrete element that provides specific functionality and may include instructive copy, images, text fields, buttons, links, etcetera. Together, the patterns create a complete Web page. Of course, when wireframing in patterns, it always helps if there is a pre-existing library of patterns to draw from, but I have found that getting through the first wireframe reveals most of the reusable patterns.

Ellerby, Lindsay. UXmatters (2007). Articles>Information Design>Planning>Web Design

Developing Trends and Challenges for the Information Industry Examined in the Context of the Online Information Conference    

This paper examines emerging trends in the information industry that are likely to be of interest to information professionals during 2008. These include web 2.0, enterprise 2.0, social networking, semantic web, risk management, user-generated content, universal search, crowdsourcing and new roles for information professionals.

Allen, Katherine. Business Information Review (2008). Articles>Information Design>Web Design>Planning

You Need a Five-Year Plan for Your Website

Websites change the way an organization communicates with its staff, customers, investors and general public. A change in communication is a major shift for the organization. To effectively implement such a change will take time. You need a five-year plan for your website.

McGovern, Gerry. New Thinking (2003). Articles>Web Design>Planning>Project Management

Prototyping with XHTML

Looking for another way of realizing your design deliverables? XHTML are easy to code, can double as specifications, and create constraints that increase design effectiveness.

Ramsay, Anders and Leah Buley. Boxes and Arrows (2008). Articles>Web Design>Planning>XHTML

Twenty Signs You Don’t Want that Web Design Project

Most clients are good clients, and some clients are great clients. But some jobs are just never going to work out well. Herewith, a few indicators that a project may be headed to the toilet.

Zeldman, Jeffrey. Zeldman.com (2008). Articles>Web Design>Project Management>Planning

Creating a Site Design Plan

All the books tell me to set goals for my site. OK. They say that those goals need to be measurable and definite. Fine. But asking my client, “What are the site’s goals?” never seemed to get me what I wanted. It occurred to me that a better approach might be to get some background info from the client and then set the goals and present them to the client for approval.

Morrill-McClure, Karen. Digital Web Magazine (2005). Articles>Web Design>Planning>Information Design

Rolling Out a Social Media Strategy

So you have you’re social media strategy, now what? If you’re like most organizations then you can’t roll out a social media campaign in a day, or even in a few weeks. So how do you go about rolling out a social media strategy? My recommendation would be to proceed in phases. What I’m outlining below is a very high level approach to rolling a social media strategy.

Morgan, Jacob. Social Media Today (2009). Articles>Web Design>Social Networking>Planning

Why Stylesheet Abstraction Matters

CSS is simple. You assign style primitives to elements and some of those primitives cascade down to the elements contained within. I get it. It’s simple to understand. But CSS is not simple to use or maintain. It’s time for stylesheets to evolve so that we can take web design to the next level.

Eppstein, Chris. Git Hub (2009). Articles>Web Design>CSS>Planning