Add Functionality to Quick, Easy Site Deployment

More than a Web content management system, Octigon President James Smith calls Octane8 a deployment platform. What exactly can you deploy with Octane8? To name a few: public Internet sites, private intranet and extranet sites; sites for the group you'll be collaborating with for the next two weeks; sites with pages that sell; and sites with pages that inform.

Pastore, Michael. Intranet Journal (2003). Design>Content Management>Web Design

Ajax and Your CMS

If a modern day Rip van Winkle woke up after just a year's sleep, he would be stunned by the buzz around Ajax today. Technology is moving very quickly in this space and whether you are a web author, a CMS developer, or a regular web user, Ajax will make some exciting changes to your world.

Downes, Jonathan and Joe Walker. CMSwatch (2006). Articles>Content Management>Web Design>Ajax

ATAG (Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines) Assessment of WordPress

This document assesses WordPress 2.01 against the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 1.0.

Clark, Joe. JoeClark.org (2006). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Content Management

Calculating the Cost of a Large-Scale Web Site

A well-designed information architecture with intuitive organization, labeling, navigation, and indexing systems can significantly reduce the amount of time that users spend blundering through the hierarchies of Web sites and intranets. How much is this time-savings worth? The case is clearest for intranets where the users are your employees.

Morville, Peter. Semantic Studios (1997). Design>Web Design>Content Management>Usability

Capturing Feedback: Building a Tighter Net  

Describes how to use Microsoft FrontPage and Access to build a system for organizing and retrieving feedback from reviewers. The article is intended for those with some experience with Web and database design.

Shoesmith, Kevin. Intercom (2001). Design>Content Management>Web Design>Microsoft Access

Characteristics of Web Site Content

Web site content must be recrudescent, repositorial, refluent, and rectilinear. What? Here's an innovative treatment of the essential attributes of online text. Find out why great web site content generally has these 14 characteristics that start with a "R".

Streight, Steven. Blogger.com (2005). Articles>Web Design>Content Management>Usability

Choices and Challenges: Considerations for Designing Electronic Performance Support Systems    

Introduces the breadth of decision-making required in EPSS design. Explores choices and challenges facing designers in the design process, performance cycle, technology constraints, use of storytelling techniques, evaluation, and success factors.

Carliner, Saul. Technical Communication Online (2002). Articles>Content Management>Web Design>EPSS

A Consumer Survey of CMS Vendor Websites

In March 2003, an online survey was conducted of consumer opinion about CMS vendor websites. This was extensively promoted through the CMS mailing lists, and on key CMS websites such as CMS Watch, the Intranet Focus and Step Two Designs sites. In total, 168 responses were made to this survey, representing consumers from across the globe, and in every type of organisation. This briefing provides a high-level summary of the results of the survey.

Robertson, James. Step Two (2003). Design>Content Management>Web Design

Content Management Systems

Content management systems are key to running an efficient website. Keep the development group out of the loop on updating content, and you will move ever so much faster. 'Content' doesn’t need the same kind of source control that scripts and templates need. Specific design suggestions follow.

Boynton, J.R. Diamond Lane, The (2002). Design>Content Management>Web Design

Content Management Systems

In this White Paper, we examine the benefits of automated content management, and demonstrate where efficiencies can be gained within your organization. Web sites with more than a few information pages may benefit from content management systems (CMS). Content management systems are automated tools that allow for web site content to be created and administered on a recurring basis. The result puts the responsibility for content development into the hands of the authors (where it belongs) and out of the hands of the programmers.

Sloan, Brian and Scott Duffy. XGuru (2002). Articles>Content Management>Web Design

Content Management Systems and the Single Web Designer

Content Management is the next step in separating structure from design. What began with Cascading Style Sheets and was furthered by XML, is exploding with the CM environment, where billions were spent last year and more billions are expected to be spent in the years ahead. CM Systems come in many shapes: They can be huge or small, simple or very complex. They range from the very expensive (almost $300,000 for enterprise–wide systems like Vignette or Interwoven and $43,000 per server processor for Microsoft’s CMS to almost free (less than $1,000 for Manila and nothing for Zope). But they are all based on the same idea: CM allows designers to focus on design by building templates. Subject experts build content in a separate environment. The server takes the content, inserts it into the correct template and sends it all, neatly wrapped up, to end users.

Ellis, James. List Apart, A (2002). Design>Content Management>Web Design

CoRR: A Computing Research Repository    

This paper describes the decisions by which the Association for Computing Machinery integrated good features from the Los Alamos e-print (physics) archive and from Cornell University's Networked Computer Science Technical Reference Library to form their own open, permanent, online “computing research repository” (CoRR). Submitted papers are not refereed and anyone can browse and extract CoRR material for free, so CoRR's eventual success could revolutionize computer science publishing. But several serious challenges remain: some journals forbid online preprints, the CoRR user interface is cumbersome, submissions are only self-indexed, (no professional library staff manages the archive) and long-term funding is uncertain.

Halpern, Joseph Y. Journal of Computer Documentation (2000). Articles>Content Management>Web Design

Creating An Information Model

An Information Model provides the framework for organizing your content so that it can be delivered and reused in a variety of innovative ways. Once you have created an Information Model for your content repository, you will be able to label information in ways that will enhance search and retrieval, making it possible for authors and users to find the information resources they need quickly and easily.

Hackos, JoAnn T. WebRef (2002). Design>Content Management>Single Sourcing>Web Design

Database-Driven Navigation Bars Using Text and Images

Okay, we've all fiddled with NavBars. In fact, MM's built-in Navigation Bar Builder is pretty sweet for creating NavBars with onMouseOver and onMouseOut behaviors giving your site that professional look. But what if your site changes frequently? One option is to bag the images and stick with a database-driven NavBar that uses a repeat region. We'll look at that approach first. Then we will see how we can replace UltraDev's hardcoded NavBar image behaviors with database-driven links and images.

Princeton University. Design>Content Management>Web Design>Dreamweaver

Designing for Web Services

Many technology companies, consultants, and academics are hyping the future of Web services. But how will this background transfer of data between applications affect the user experience?

Lombardi, Victor. New Architect (2002). Design>Web Design>Content Management>User Experience

Designing Wearable Performance Support: Insights from the Early Literature    

According to Gery (1991), an electronic performance support system (EPSS) is an electronic environment available to and easily accessible by employees that is structured to provide online access to all information to permit them to do their jobs with minimal intervention by others. Why do we assume that this support must be provided on a computer? If effective performance support must be 'available' and 'easily accessible,' how can designers provide support to people whose jobs require mobility? Such jobs include (but certainly are not limited to) supervising a manufacturing operation, inspecting foods, and repairing equipment. A designer for any EPSS being developed to support jobs such as these would have to take the employees' mobility into account.

Gobert, Danielle. Technical Communication Online (2002). Design>Content Management>Wireless Web

Dynamic Content Management  

Until recently, technical communicators created static content--content that is created in a specific way for a specific purpose (e.g., user guides and help) and that remains the same until the technical communicator deliberately changes it. As single sourcing has made it possible to write information once and use it many times, technical communicators have begun to create static customized content, which is designed to meet the specific needs of the user, the materials to be developed (such as user guides, reference guides, and training), and the delivery media (paper or online). The content is customized for a particular requirement at a particular time but cannot be changed without being regenerated by the author. Now, the ability to create dynamic content will change the way technical communicators envision, create, and distribute information.

Rockley, Ann. STC Proceedings (2002). Design>Content Management>Single Sourcing>Web Design

Dynamic Websites: What Are They and Do You Need One?

If you're thinking about getting, or updating, a website, chances are that you'll run into a web designer who will try to sell you on the idea of a 'dynamic site.' Here's what you need to know in order to decide if such an approach is for you.

Bennaco (2004). Design>Web Design>Content Management

The End of Homemade Websites

Web services will free individual site designers from having to program and design common features. This will decrease business costs, increase usability, and let designers focus on and improve features that are unique to each site.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2001). Design>Content Management>Web Design>Usability

Enterprise Portals: Tip of Which Iceberg?

Summarizing recent CMS Watch research on portal software, Janus Boye finds that portal technology represents just the tip of the enterprise information iceberg. But given the diversity of portal scenarios, you should ask yourself which iceberg you're on.

Boye, Janus. CMS Watch (2006). Articles>Web Design>Content Management

Evolving Client Content

Content management systems are only as good as the content they manage. Garrity explores the care and feeding of low-budget clients who need high-quality content.

Garrity, Steven. List Apart, A (2001). Design>Content Management>Single Sourcing>Web Design

Fuzzy Matching as a Retrieval-Enabling Technique for Digital Libraries

This paper advocates an often-neglected search-support technique, approximate or 'fuzzy' matching of user search terms. When properly deployed, fuzzy matching can significantly enhance the benefits of other, more common approaches to end-user answer retrieval from online reference collections. We compare crude with more sophisticated approximation techniques to explain how astute fuzzy-match software can convert many different near-miss situations (such as those involving faulty prefixes or suffixes, character misplacement, nonstandard word stems, or unanticipated redescription of concepts) into more adequate results. We also suggest practical ways to overcome fuzzy matching's own major drawbacks (namely, problems with search speed, search imprecision, and misinterpretation of search results). The resulting analysis clarifies how to deploy fuzzy matching for maximum effectiveness. We conclude that appropriate fuzzy matching enables more frequent, more flexible search success than do ordinary retrieval-improvement techniques used without it.

Girill, T.R. and Clement H. Luk. CSU Chico (1996). Articles>Content Management>Web Design>Search

“Hand It To Them On A Silver Platter: Meeting Researchers Needs In The Electronic Age”  

This paper describes the Electronic Resource Library (ERL) at http://plutonium-erl.actx.edu. This is a web-based, subject-oriented digital library on the topic of plutonium and its ancillary disciplines. Previous research analyzing differences in the information-seeking behavior of scientists and engineers is reviewed and lessons learned applied to this digital library model. Special consideration has been given to recommendations in the SATCOM report from the National Academy of Sciences/National Academy of Engineering Committee on Scientific and Technical Communication. This report strongly advocated the development of “specialized need-groupservices” to support the work of the engineer and practitioner.

Ruddy, Karen. OSTI (1999). Articles>Content Management>Web Design

Let's Learn How Not To Mess Up With Your Web Site Content

Every web site is conceived and designed keeping in view a particular purpose to serve. The aim of web site may vary: some web site intends to showcase products or services of the company it belongs to, some provides information to its target audience, or some just exposes its company on the web in a brand building exercise. This is to note that whatever be the nature of web site, web copy plays it own crucial role in furthering the interest of the site. It is imperative that web content is easy-to-read, easy-to-find, and easy-to-understand.

Azam, Rahbre. Insider Reports, The (2008). Articles>Web Design>Content Management>Usability

Managing the Complexity of Content Management

Content management systems suck. Or so you would think from the strife heard from analysts and practitioners alike. And yet, many websites regularly publish vast amounts of information with superior control and ease compared to manually editing pages.

Lombardi, Victor. Boxes and Arrows (2004). Design>Web Design>Content Management