categoryallspace2-Design Web Design http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Design/Web-Design A directory of resources about design and web design in the field of technical communication. en-us Copyright (c) 2005-08 by the EServer. All rights reserved. tclib-editorial@eserver.org (TC Library Editorial Board) webmaster@eserver.org (Geoffrey Sauer) http://tc.eserver.org/images/newlogo.gif http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Design/Web-Design http://tc.eserver.org/31538.html http://tc.eserver.org/31538.html Brand has become an integral part of the employee communicator's role as organizations recognize the importance of employee behaviors in building brand. When it comes time to integrate brand elements into the intranet or portal, good usability practices and testing can guide that integration, ensuring desired employee behaviors. http://tc.eserver.org/31539.html http://tc.eserver.org/31539.html People and organizations generally understand the concept of the Internet's global reach. However, few see their Web presence as international, and even fewer have sites appropriate for audiences beyond their borders. As global competition grows and new markets emerge, building an effective international Web presence is becoming ever more critical. http://tc.eserver.org/31545.html http://tc.eserver.org/31545.html In the dot.com boom of the 1990s, an electronic goldrush began as companies flocked like new age prospectors seeking to plant their stake in this digital revolution that has today transformed the ways companies communicate and do business around the globe. Because the web is becoming a viable communications channel, it's important that communications professionals understand how the content they're putting up on a web site is delivering to users the kind of value that is realizing a return on their investment. http://tc.eserver.org/31560.html http://tc.eserver.org/31560.html Spending on search engine marketing (SEM) is rising dramatically, yet surprisingly few companies are measuring the effectiveness of their campaigns. In a short survey conducted by web analytics vendor NetIQ, more than 800 participants responded to questions about their search engine marketing efforts and their attempts to measure success. The survey responses provide interesting insights into the state of search engine marketing ROI. http://tc.eserver.org/31507.html http://tc.eserver.org/31507.html Processes evolve. Over time and several redesigns, a few points screamed to be kept in mind: communicate with the client, be scalable, plan to plan, test your assumptions, analyze your current site, and so on. We ran these mini-philosophies by industry leaders and newbies alike. The result? Our collection of things to think about evolved into—drum roll, please—10 EXPERT TIPS TO A SUCCESSFUL REDESIGN. Redesign is happening. Address the need. And stay on track while you do it. http://tc.eserver.org/31508.html http://tc.eserver.org/31508.html We urgently need a quick crash course on web site management; otherwise, connecting with potential customers will become a very tough challenge. Lucky are those who have a unique domain name without the additional baggage of extraneous language, numbers, dashes or slashes. Studies have shown that 90 percent of business names are problematic. These problems are serious issues for achieving higher visibility. http://tc.eserver.org/31509.html http://tc.eserver.org/31509.html When surfing the web these days, you often come across web sites that suffer from stagnation—they look old, obsolete or appear to have been designed by an amateur. Your web site needs continuous improvement to capture and engage your visitor’s attention. If not, he or she can easily click away to your competitor’s site. Here are twelve steps to help prevent stagnation. http://tc.eserver.org/31510.html http://tc.eserver.org/31510.html Little things mean a lot. Especially online. Microcontent—or the headlines, decks, subheads and other 'small' pieces of web copy—actually do most of the communicating on your web site. Handled poorly, microcontent can confuse and frustrate web visitors. Here's how to write microcontent to communicate to—instead of discombobulate—your readers. http://tc.eserver.org/31511.html http://tc.eserver.org/31511.html When SwissAir Flight 111 crashed off the coast of Nova Scotia in early September of 1998, most people didn’t realize the accident would begin to usher in a new era—using the Internet for crisis communication. In the years since, more and more companies and not-for-profits have jumped on the bandwagon and identified their web sites as critical tools for crisis communication response, particularly since Sept. 11. http://tc.eserver.org/31512.html http://tc.eserver.org/31512.html Admit it. Your intranet is a mess. What started out as a great idea for sharing information inside the company has turned into the corporate junk drawer—a jumbled collection of useful, not-so-useful, relevant, irrelevant, redundant, inconsistent and unmanaged stuff. While parts of it make you proud (perhaps the employee directory or news portal), taken as a whole, it just hasn’t lived up to all the grand ideas you had when you posted those first few pages. http://tc.eserver.org/31513.html http://tc.eserver.org/31513.html Confusing. Frustrating. Underutilized. Time-consuming. If you are like most communicators, these are just some of the words that come to mind when thinking about your organization’s employee portal. Intranets and employee portals have long been plagued by numerous challenges, including limited funding, poor navigation, content overload and changing technology. Add in growing user expectations, disengaged executives and differing opinions about what portals are and how they deliver tangible value, and it’s no wonder they are such sore spots for communicators. http://tc.eserver.org/31514.html http://tc.eserver.org/31514.html Did you know an intranet could actually be more global than the Internet? The interactions within an intranet are more intense and frequent, and anonymity is replaced with specificity—your real name, job title and location. Company management often believes that a unified employee communication intranet site will foster a community, a shared corporate culture and a universal standard. But a review of two U.S.-based global intranets reveals that today’s reality may fall short. http://tc.eserver.org/31515.html http://tc.eserver.org/31515.html Is your intranet failing to deliver value for your company and your staff? If so, time and money are being wasted. Research shows that employees can take twice as long to complete tasks and get information from a poor intranet as compared to one that is well designed. This wasted time can cost over US$1,000 each year, per employee, which translates to a cost of US$1 million for every 1,000 employees. So what can you do to improve your intranet? Here are 10 things to think about. http://tc.eserver.org/31517.html http://tc.eserver.org/31517.html A wiki is a web site that anybody can change. You may have already visited a wiki without even knowing it. Wikis are poised to become one of the most important online communication tools we’ve seen in a long time. While blogs are justifiably getting most of the attention paid to the online world these days, wikis are quietly weaving their way into both the external and internal communication world. http://tc.eserver.org/31488.html http://tc.eserver.org/31488.html In this podcast, Noz Urbina talks about how Web 2.0 is changing the role of the technical communicator into one who drives product R&D and interaction design. The interview covers how the role of the technical communicator has evolved into a diversity of roles; how awareness of user needs and requirements allows technical communicators to get involved in product R&D and user interaction design; and how implementing a backwards flow of data from hundreds of internal and external users changes the role of a technical writer to one who aggregates, synthesizes, and ensures quality rather than one who merely writes. http://tc.eserver.org/31490.html http://tc.eserver.org/31490.html In this podcast, I talk with Alan Porter, vice president of Operations at WebWorks, about the Web 2.0 technologies they’re using to reach out to their customer base. In addition to using blogs, wikis, and social networks to connect with customers, WebWorks also uses wikis to facilitate communication and collaboration within their company. http://tc.eserver.org/31473.html http://tc.eserver.org/31473.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/31474.html http://tc.eserver.org/31474.html Despite the Internet's emergence as a mainstream business tool, web conferencing can still be a daunting experience for first-timers and even seasoned presenters. For today's business professionals, it's not the technology that makes them apprehensive, but the knowledge that familiar ways of presenting are inadequate to execute an effective web conference. Provide someone with useful information and a little preparation, however, and that person can host an effective, efficient web conference. http://tc.eserver.org/31485.html http://tc.eserver.org/31485.html In many organizations, when economic conditions improve, funding becomes available for investment in internal communication technologies. While the potential expansion of budgets is welcome news to communicators around the globe, capitalizing on it requires careful, thoughtful prioritization of still-precious resources. So what type of focused investments should communicators consider? Intranet and employee portal improvements should be high on the list. http://tc.eserver.org/31409.html http://tc.eserver.org/31409.html When you measure hits on inter/intranet sites, you are measuring overall volume of usage -- how many times parts of your site have been opened. However, hits don't distinguish between the opening of an entire page or a single illustration. There are many additional ways of measuring usage. However, measuring the "userability" of a site is just as important in order to improve usage numbers. But the first place any communicator should start when measuring the effectiveness of electronic communications is to identify the original objectives for putting something on-line. Conducting some baseline audience research upfront to make sure your electronic solutions will be as effective as possible and then measuring afterward to see if the intended objectives are being met. http://tc.eserver.org/31412.html http://tc.eserver.org/31412.html According to the report "State of the News Media 2005" from the Project for Excellence in Journalism, "more than a third of Americans, some 36 percent, are regular consumers of four or more different kinds of news outlets—network news, local TV, newspapers, cable, radio, the Internet and magazines." http://tc.eserver.org/31415.html http://tc.eserver.org/31415.html For the last 19 years, Keith Moore has hosted a conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, called "How Colleges and Universities Can Obtain National (and Regional) Publicity." In a sign of the times, this year's conference included a session in which we focused not on getting into the major mass media, but on the capabilities of the machines that sit on our desktops. In short, we looked at the evolving world of so-called "micro media," tools that are enabling us to create new online communities in ways never before possible. http://tc.eserver.org/31418.html http://tc.eserver.org/31418.html The user of a table would be looking for one or more data points. Therefore, if we set a task that uses a table, and zebra striping does make things easier, then we would expect to see improvements in accuracy and speed. http://tc.eserver.org/31419.html http://tc.eserver.org/31419.html Any community—online or off—must start slowly, and be nurtured. You cannot “just add community.” It must be cared for, and hosted; it takes time and people with great communication skills to set the tone and tend the conversation. http://tc.eserver.org/31430.html http://tc.eserver.org/31430.html While the use of a news section on the company intranet's home page is widespread, communicators need to ask themselves how effective this is as a way to avoid mixed messages and information overload. Does it reduce information overload, or increase it? And how can the news section be used to effectively cut through informational clutter? http://tc.eserver.org/31443.html http://tc.eserver.org/31443.html Genesys, a system of medical care facilities in central Michigan, has introduced an innovative way to couple emerging mobile communication technology with sophisticated medical care. Recently, the hospital system introduced the use of hand-held wireless personal digital assistants (PDAs) by physicians in its 440-bed system, which is made up of three local hospitals merged into one. http://tc.eserver.org/31446.html http://tc.eserver.org/31446.html For the last couple of months, I’ve been developing an online list of major trends that are transforming public relations, with links to sites, articles and quotes that in one way or another prove the point and that I know I’ll someday want to get back to. It’s something like my own personal tagging system, maintained in a wiki. http://tc.eserver.org/31384.html http://tc.eserver.org/31384.html The Internet is a free medium, just like roads and highways. There are those who walk and those who run, some who drive taxis, some Ferraris, and others tractor-trailers. To each his own-the roads are all free. Thank heaven. With such a powerful tool at our command, why is so much of the Internet so underutilized, and why is so much of Internet marketing so increasingly ineffective? http://tc.eserver.org/31386.html http://tc.eserver.org/31386.html Linda, an American living abroad in a country with limited merchandise, orders online for books, contact lenses, and smoked ham. Her Dutch husband buys from www.amazon.com and www.ebay.com because U.S.-based retail web sites offer a wide range of goods at a cheaper price than their adopted country, including lower import duties and lower shipping costs from U.S.-based cargo carriers. http://tc.eserver.org/31392.html http://tc.eserver.org/31392.html New technologies are changing the ways we can achieve excellence in communication. Three new web-based communication tools have caught the imagination of innovators and early adopters. Blogs and wikis are proliferating all over the Internet, and podcasts look like they will soon be commonplace. http://tc.eserver.org/31393.html http://tc.eserver.org/31393.html If ever there were a perfect tool for the corporate communication expert, blogging is it. Think of a blog as the 3D version of your capabilities, one in which you provide context and meaning to your work experience and expertise. So let's talk about how to blog well. http://tc.eserver.org/31394.html http://tc.eserver.org/31394.html If you're a professional communicator, chances are good you've already asked yourself whether it's time to start your own blog. But there's another tech question that you probably have not yet asked yourself, and perhaps you should: Is it time to start your own wiki? http://tc.eserver.org/31396.html http://tc.eserver.org/31396.html Branding has been called the most powerful idea in business, yet few companies consciously craft and promote their brand. Making a brand visible to an online audience can be an additional challenge. Studies show that searchers regard the companies that are placed on the first page of search engine results as the major players in the field. So how do you get the coveted page-one positioning? New technologies like RSS feeds are one way to accomplish this and make your brand more visible in the process. http://tc.eserver.org/31399.html http://tc.eserver.org/31399.html When news reports announced that Apple Computer was suing unnamed individuals (presumed to be employees) who had allegedly leaked information about a prototype Apple product to several blog news sites, it raised a number of questions. What does the lawsuit mean for freedom of expression and the role of journalists who serve an information-hungry audience? How will the courts balance the fundamental right of freedom of expression against a company's claims that trade secrets have been violated on a blog? http://tc.eserver.org/31354.html http://tc.eserver.org/31354.html With China fast overtaking the United States as the world's largest online market, Rogers provides helpful information on how technical communicators can tailor their Web sites to appeal to Chinese visitors. http://tc.eserver.org/31355.html http://tc.eserver.org/31355.html Are you looking for ways to maximize your company's global Web presence? Look no further, as the authors have laid out a step-by-step plan for creating and designing a multilingual site. http://tc.eserver.org/31268.html http://tc.eserver.org/31268.html QAS is a small company with only 400 employees. However, this small postal software company well understands the power and value of knowledge and empowering employees with the right information and tools to excel in their day-to-day jobs. How? Rather than accepting their small size and stature as an impediment to intranet success, QAS has evolved their intranet from good to great. http://tc.eserver.org/31269.html http://tc.eserver.org/31269.html If the pace of change in social media and collaborative working continues, intranets as we know them will rapidly become a thing of the past. At the same time, those responsible for corporate intranets need to be sure that past and present investment in the platform pays off. What should they do? http://tc.eserver.org/31270.html http://tc.eserver.org/31270.html Every year needs its hype topic of choice. In the field of intranets and portals for 2007, the fashion has now been decided: It's the 3-D intranet—some version of Second Life (the virtual digital environment gaining popularity among large corporations) designed for employees. IBM is investing large sums of money looking into what a 3-D intranet might be like, and intranet managers and directors in large organizations are gaining interest in this new possibility. http://tc.eserver.org/31271.html http://tc.eserver.org/31271.html When Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwarz needs to communicate with the world, he doesn’t necessarily call a press conference, issue a press release, or even convene a webinar or videoconference. He blogs. His online diary gives him an unfiltered channel leading to the employees, customers, analysts and resellers who represent the first wave of perception formation regarding important company products and service initiatives. Sun is leading a transformation of the communication profession, as the Web transitions from an information repository to a platform of collaboration and community building. http://tc.eserver.org/31274.html http://tc.eserver.org/31274.html Digital copy is underappreciated, underrated and - astonishingly - still the poor cousin of the web relaunch process. http://tc.eserver.org/31276.html http://tc.eserver.org/31276.html Meet Scott, age 28, with a Dunkin' Donuts cup costume, a web site, a MySpace page and an archive of compelling brand content that, by the way, happens to rank number four in a Google search for the brand name. Scott is among the legions of brand enthusiasts who are knocking down the walls of the traditional "us versus them" brand relationship, demanding to be let in and be a part of the brand experience. http://tc.eserver.org/31278.html http://tc.eserver.org/31278.html Before you jump up and down about social media and the wonderfully transparent world it is creating, consider the consequences. There’s just no way to prevent those outside your walls from looking in. Leaky information, errant e-mails and inappropriate instant messages now have the capacity to become very, very public. If there's one lesson that communicators need to take away from the new social media, it's how to operate in a world of transparency. http://tc.eserver.org/31208.html http://tc.eserver.org/31208.html The “why” of Ruby on Rails comes down to productivity, says Michael Slater. Web applications that share three characteristics—they’re database-driven, they’re new, and they have needs not well met by a typical CMS—can be built much more quickly with Ruby on Rails than with PHP, .NET, or Java, once the investment required to learn Rails has been made. Does your web app fall within the RoR “sweet spot?” http://tc.eserver.org/31211.html http://tc.eserver.org/31211.html The “how” of Ruby on Rails: Hivelogic’s Dan Benjamin prepares non-Rails developers, designers, and other creative professionals for their first foray into Rails. Learn what Ruby on Rails is (and isn’t), and where it fits into the spectrum of web development and design. See through the myths surrounding this powerful young platform, and learn how to approach working with it. http://tc.eserver.org/31233.html http://tc.eserver.org/31233.html Despite blogs’ potential for creating valuable online communities, many communicators are still uneasy with the blog format. Communicators worry about the possibility of readers posting negative comments and feedback on the company blog. Angry customers leaving stories of poor experiences for all to see or employees submitting bitter public complaints are nightmare scenarios for most communicators. So how should we respond to negative feedback on corporate blogs? The process begins with shifting our perspective to see the risks as opportunities. http://tc.eserver.org/31238.html http://tc.eserver.org/31238.html The online world is abuzz with talk about social networking. With companies such as Facebook seemingly constantly in the news, 2007 has been the year that social networking took its first adolescent steps beyond being the sole purview of, well, adolescents, and started to become a tool that is getting noticed in the business world. But with all the hype out there about online social networking, how can organizations begin to better understand the tangible business impact of their forays into this area? http://tc.eserver.org/31239.html http://tc.eserver.org/31239.html Let's face it: These are tough times to be a professional communicator. Our audiences have taken the reins of what is indisputably the dominating mass communication medium of our era: the Internet. Web 2.0, characterized by social media applications for peer-to-peer collaboration such as YouTube, MySpace and Wikipedia is challenging all of our basic assumptions as communication practitioners. The astonishing rise of social networking structures and content is in effect challenging the very existence of the traditional corporate communication function. http://tc.eserver.org/31240.html http://tc.eserver.org/31240.html Social media measurement sounds like an inherently good idea. Management likes numbers, and if we can measure it, we can manage it. So, all this new online activity should be easier to understand, once we measure it. There's only one problem: What does social media measurement mean? Like social media itself, it is an evolving term with multiple definitions based on the needs of different constituencies. http://tc.eserver.org/31187.html http://tc.eserver.org/31187.html Defining a site is one of the more complicated procedures in Dreamweaver, so do not attempt this process unless you have some time, patience, and knowledge of how to transfer files to your server space. http://tc.eserver.org/31193.html http://tc.eserver.org/31193.html A list of common mistakes with e-commerce shopping cart design were identified in a previous issue of Usability News. This article revisits that list and reviews how 500 of the top Internet retail sites of today implemented their shopping cart design. http://tc.eserver.org/31197.html http://tc.eserver.org/31197.html This study evaluated the usability of three websites for Spanish-English Dual Language K-8 schools. Twelve participants (6 parents, 6 teachers) reviewed and performed tasks on the three public school websites. Site usability was determined through both objective and subjective measures, including task completion time, first-click, total number of pages visited, task success, perceived task difficulty, user satisfaction, and overall ranked preference. Results indicated that one site was preferred more than the others by both user groups and resulted in more efficient search behavior. Clear navigation, link terminology, and proper use of both languages were found to be critical factors contributing to the sites’ usability. http://tc.eserver.org/31132.html http://tc.eserver.org/31132.html This free 35-page guide outlines seven challenges every writer and copywriter faces when writing for the Web. http://tc.eserver.org/31126.html http://tc.eserver.org/31126.html Just because a website looks good, doesn't mean that it's easy to use. http://tc.eserver.org/31128.html http://tc.eserver.org/31128.html What bugs me is not the results of the major search engines, but the results of internal web site searches. http://tc.eserver.org/31129.html http://tc.eserver.org/31129.html Give the reader the ability to quickly peruse the information presented and extract the information they need. For example, if there is a lot of information, and the reader is required to scroll the screen to see content 'below the fold', an overview would probably be a very good idea. Contrariwise, if the article is short, and can be quickly scanned (especially if you can do so without scrolling the page), providing an overview might be counterproductive. http://tc.eserver.org/31104.html http://tc.eserver.org/31104.html Any programming problem can be solved in multiple right ways. This series looks at four approaches for creating an Asynchronous JavaScript + XML (Ajax) weather badge, a small reusable widget that's easily embedded on any Web page. This first article lays the foundation and examines the first approach--walking the DOM tree. http://tc.eserver.org/31101.html http://tc.eserver.org/31101.html When designing interfaces for browsing data-driven sites, creating navigation elements that are also visualization tools helps the user make better decisions. Wilson Miner demonstrates three techniques for incorporating data visualization into standards-based navigation patterns. http://tc.eserver.org/31102.html http://tc.eserver.org/31102.html It is now possible to replicate Google Maps' functionality with open source software and produce high-quality mapping applications tailored to your design goals. Paul Smith shows how. http://tc.eserver.org/31103.html http://tc.eserver.org/31103.html One strong suit of Asynchronous JavaScript + XML (Ajax) is presenting data from the server to users in a dynamic fashion. Discover several techniques that use Ajax for dynamic data display using tables, tabs, and gliders. http://tc.eserver.org/31077.html http://tc.eserver.org/31077.html The key to efficient and effective user support is an intranet site that supports employees in performing their tasks. However, most intranet sites offer an overload of information that users often must interpret on their own. Van Mansom outlines a useful approach to creating corporate intranet sites. http://tc.eserver.org/31079.html http://tc.eserver.org/31079.html To gain a competitive edge--or even survive--in a world gone flat, a company must assert a level of uniqueness. Companies creating global Web sites can use competitive analysis and landscape analysis to analyze the market; Lee-Kim details how to add cultural analysis to this mix. http://tc.eserver.org/31093.html http://tc.eserver.org/31093.html Some failure allows complex organizations to learn and grow; others can be catastrophic. In Part 2 of his series, Peter Jones explores the factors of user experience role, the timing dynamics of large projects, and several alternatives to the framing of UX roles and organizations today. http://tc.eserver.org/31071.html http://tc.eserver.org/31071.html Findability is to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as 'web standards' is to 'table layouts.' In a web whose vastness exceeds comprehension, sites with findable content win. The good news is that everyone on your team can help make your site findable. http://tc.eserver.org/31072.html http://tc.eserver.org/31072.html You load a new web service, eager to dive in and start engaging, and what's the first thing that greets you? A sign-up form. We can do better, says Luke Wroblewski, author of Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks. Via a technique of "gradual engagment," we can get people using and caring about our web services instead of frustrating them (or sending them to a competitor's site) by forcing them to fill out a sign-up form first. http://tc.eserver.org/31073.html http://tc.eserver.org/31073.html When you design or modify Web sites to allow access to people with disabilities, you make the Web accessible. New Web sites and applications, however, are introducing new problems and barriers. There are complex graphics and multimedia applications that assistive technology simply has not solved. One solution to these new problems is to put accessibility in the hands of the Web developer and content author. Creating a Web site that is accessible by people with disabilities is relatively easy as long as the Web developer and author follow some basic guidelines. http://tc.eserver.org/31064.html http://tc.eserver.org/31064.html The prevalence of online banners and text ads have made all but the most annoying online ads nearly transparent to online users. To stand out from the crowd, some marketers are turning to a simple, relevant and transparent advertising format: the text link. http://tc.eserver.org/31065.html http://tc.eserver.org/31065.html 98 percent of Internet shoppers leave ecommerce sites without buying. That is why Internet-savvy marketers are starting to use retargeting technology to pursuing customers who have left their website and recapture lost sales. http://tc.eserver.org/31066.html http://tc.eserver.org/31066.html The introduction of Google's 'Universal Search' has had a large-scale negative impact on the natural results of many online retailers and vertical market websites. http://tc.eserver.org/31067.html http://tc.eserver.org/31067.html When Tim O'Reilly coined the term Web 2.0 in 2004, the Internet was still 'a place for people to go.' Now, it's what he imagined: a place where people are. It has become integrated into our daily lives, where we collaborate with others. It has also become a place where our electronics and appliances collaborate on our behalf. http://tc.eserver.org/31068.html http://tc.eserver.org/31068.html To get the first spot on Google, Yahoo, or MSN, all it used to take was the highest bid. Today, even the experts aren't sure exactly what it's going to take. http://tc.eserver.org/31048.html http://tc.eserver.org/31048.html Many recent studies on computer-mediated communication (CMC) have addressed the question of orality and literacy. This article examines a relatively recent subgenre of CMC, that of written online sports commentary, that provides us with written CMC that is clearly based on firmly established oral genres, those of radio and television sports commentary. The examples analyzed are from two English, two French, and two Spanish online football (soccer) commentaries. The purpose of the study is to examine oral traits and genre mixing in online football commentaries in the three languages and carryover from the spoken genres of radio and television commentaries to this developing genre, following Ferguson. Special attention is paid to Web page design. The study reveals that form and content of online football commentaries are strongly affected by the style of the online newspaper. http://tc.eserver.org/31054.html http://tc.eserver.org/31054.html Marketing to social media websites such as Digg and del.icio.us has become an integral part of any SEO campiagn - find out what you need to do. http://tc.eserver.org/31055.html http://tc.eserver.org/31055.html Submitting your website to directories is a great way to increase your search engine rankings - get the full lowdown on how to do this. http://tc.eserver.org/31056.html http://tc.eserver.org/31056.html Customisable websites have recently become more and more popular - get the lowdown on when and why you should and shouldn't allow users to change pages on your website. http://tc.eserver.org/31057.html http://tc.eserver.org/31057.html It's important to fully understand the theories of social groups before designing online social networks - find out all you need to know! http://tc.eserver.org/31058.html http://tc.eserver.org/31058.html Discover the accessibility problems caused by AJAX and how it can be used to enhance web accessibility. http://tc.eserver.org/31059.html http://tc.eserver.org/31059.html Web developers often make the same errors as each other when implementing accessibility - find out what these are and how to avoid making these mistakes. http://tc.eserver.org/31060.html http://tc.eserver.org/31060.html Don't let your stylesheet files get out of control - follow these guidelines right from the start and you'll easily be able to manage and update your CSS files. http://tc.eserver.org/31019.html http://tc.eserver.org/31019.html Geo-redirecting -- redirecting users to different parts of your website depending on their own geographical location -- is a neat trick. It is handy when your website has different messages or product offers for users from different countries or regions. But many website owners mistakenly assume that their geolocation software works every time. It doesn't! http://tc.eserver.org/30888.html http://tc.eserver.org/30888.html CSS selectors are handy things. They make coding CSS easier, sure, but they can also help keep your markup clean. http://tc.eserver.org/30887.html http://tc.eserver.org/30887.html For contract web workers, consultants, and freelancers who work with far-flung collaborators, multiple clients, and constantly shifting teams, the rules of digital engagement--the way we interact with each other and resolve conflict in virtual space--are constantly changing. As we adapt to new ways of collaborating, we must also learn how to communicate effectively, set expectations, and build team confidence in an evolving work environment. http://tc.eserver.org/30886.html http://tc.eserver.org/30886.html Standards-aware developers, by their very nature, will object to adding a line of unnecessary markup to their documents just to get one single browser to behave as it should by default. http://tc.eserver.org/30885.html http://tc.eserver.org/30885.html Real DOM support is a game changer. Enabled by default, it would bring many sites to their knees. That would break the web, and not in quotes. Providing IE8's greater compliance on an opt-in basis is the only way to get everyone over the scripting hump. http://tc.eserver.org/30883.html http://tc.eserver.org/30883.html The cluster analysis process looks for groups of visitors in the data, where the people within the groups have something in common but the commonality is different from group to group. http://tc.eserver.org/30884.html http://tc.eserver.org/30884.html In part one of this series, I examined visitor segmentation, a data-mining technique. Now, let's look at how data mining can be used to understand important visitor behavior over time. http://tc.eserver.org/30882.html http://tc.eserver.org/30882.html I know what engagement is (everyone does), but I don't know what it means or how to explain it, let alone how to measure it. In a digital marketing context, I think it's one of those words that everyone understands but can't define. http://tc.eserver.org/30879.html http://tc.eserver.org/30879.html In many companies Web and Web analytics have been a silo that someone else is taking care of. Web sites are becoming the most important customer touch point and the most important revenue generator, even for businesses that are not first of mind. http://tc.eserver.org/30880.html http://tc.eserver.org/30880.html 2008 will see a more serious attempt to get Web analytics to become a part of business analytics. We're still a silo in most companies (data and people). We'll see more collaboration and innovation in helping Web data become a core part of the company data to truly give end-to-end visibility (and maybe the holy grail of multichannel analytics/impact). http://tc.eserver.org/30881.html http://tc.eserver.org/30881.html Tools to build an effective Web measurement strategy on a tight budget. http://tc.eserver.org/30878.html http://tc.eserver.org/30878.html The goal of the Trinity mindset is to power the generation of actionable insights. Its goal is not to do reporting. Its goal is not to figure out how to spam decision makers with data. Actionable Insights and Metrics are the uber-goal simply because they drive strategic differentiation and a sustainable competitive advantage. http://tc.eserver.org/30877.html http://tc.eserver.org/30877.html Tracking web usage with a one dimensional mindset (or in a silo) means that you will end up missing so much of the picture. http://tc.eserver.org/30873.html http://tc.eserver.org/30873.html Few usability professionals are as well-rounded as Avi Parush. Avi has worked in industry and academia, testing and design, the Old World and the New, with web applications and airplane cockpits, in operating rooms and on the bridges of ships. http://tc.eserver.org/30866.html http://tc.eserver.org/30866.html Data quality on the internet absolutely sucks. And there is nothing you can do about it. At least for now. http://tc.eserver.org/30865.html http://tc.eserver.org/30865.html Is doing Path Analysis a good use of time? In my humble opinion the answer is a rather emphatic no, except for one exception (which I'll discuss below). Almost always Path Analysis tends to be a sub optimal use of our time, resources and any money that is expended on buying tools that do 'great' Path Analysis. http://tc.eserver.org/30864.html http://tc.eserver.org/30864.html Bounce rate is a beautiful way to measure the quality of traffic coming to your website. It is almost instantly accessible in any web analytics tool. It is easy to understand, hard to misunderstand and can be applied to any of your efforts. http://tc.eserver.org/30867.html http://tc.eserver.org/30867.html Perhaps there is no other single metric that is abused as much as conversion rate, none that is perhaps more detrimental to solving for a holistic customer experience on the website because of the company behavior it drives. http://tc.eserver.org/30861.html http://tc.eserver.org/30861.html This study tests the effects of personalized and 'stealth' political discourse on weblogs (or blogs) and the repercussions on levels of political trust, information efficacy and political uses/gratifications. By surveying readers of three different blogs (N=1838), this study identified significant effects as a result of exposure to political statements on blogs. Indeed, there were differences in the levels of political cynicism depending on how political statements were communicated. Readers of non-political blogs were more confident in their level of political information and their ability to participate in politics. Finally, political uses/approaches and avoidances were examined, as were differences based on gender and age. http://tc.eserver.org/30827.html http://tc.eserver.org/30827.html Users now do basic operations with confidence and perform with skill on sites they use often. But when users try new sites, well-known usability problems still cause failures. http://tc.eserver.org/30828.html http://tc.eserver.org/30828.html AJAX, rich Internet UIs, mashups, communities, and user-generated content often add more complexity than they're worth. They also divert design resources and prove (once again) that what's hyped is rarely what's most profitable. http://tc.eserver.org/30821.html http://tc.eserver.org/30821.html The Stomper Scrutinizer is a webkit based browser that includes a simulation of human foveal and peripheral vision. By providing a realistic distortion of non-focused page content, the Scrutinizer reveals the perceptability of design features. It is also useful for conducting usability tests, design reviews, and has a number of features (including screenshots) for talking about design. http://tc.eserver.org/30822.html http://tc.eserver.org/30822.html Findable. Scannable. Readable. Concise. Layered. We know much these days about how to make Web content usable--thanks to experts such as Robert Horn, Jakob Nielsen, Ginny Redish, and Gerry McGovern. What we don't understand as well, however, is how to make content win users over to take the actions we want them to take or have the perceptions we want them to have. We don't understand how to make Web content both usable and persuasive. I, by no means, intend to imply that we should sacrifice the usability of content to make it more persuasive. Truly winning content must be both. http://tc.eserver.org/30816.html http://tc.eserver.org/30816.html Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 supports two workflows when authoring with XML: client-side authoring with complete XSLT template pages and server-side with XSLT fragments. The client-side option is available from the Start page. http://tc.eserver.org/30806.html http://tc.eserver.org/30806.html Converting an Atom document to JSON might, at first, appear to be a fairly straightforward task. Atom is, after all, just a bit of XML and XML-to-JSON conversion tools are widely available. However, the Atom format is more than just a set of XML elements and attributes. A number of subtle details can make proper handling of Atom difficult. This article describes those issues and demonstrates a mechanism implemented by the Apache Abdera project to convert Atom documents into JSON and produces a result that is readable, usable, and complete. http://tc.eserver.org/30795.html http://tc.eserver.org/30795.html Advanced search is the ugly child of interface design--always included, but never loved. Websites have come to depend on their search engines as the volume of content has increased. Yet advanced search functionality has not significantly developed in years. Poor matches and overwhelming search results remain a problem for users. Perhaps the standard search pattern deserves a new look. A progressive disclosure approach can enable users to use precision advanced search techniques to refine their searches and pinpoint the desired results. http://tc.eserver.org/30792.html http://tc.eserver.org/30792.html This course will provide an introductory level approach to professional web authoring. It is ideal for folks with little to no background in CSS, XHTML, Photoshop, iMovie, PHP, Database, TCP/Server experience, and other essential web authoring technologies. We will approach these technologies from both a production and a publication perspective. http://tc.eserver.org/30787.html http://tc.eserver.org/30787.html HTML Indexer is a commercial stand-alone indexing tool that is designed solely for the indexing of web sites. This article shows how to extend the functionality of HTML Indexer by including special codes in the entries, then post-processing the generated HTML to obtain final HTML. http://tc.eserver.org/30773.html http://tc.eserver.org/30773.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/30771.html http://tc.eserver.org/30771.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/30770.html http://tc.eserver.org/30770.html The updating of massive indexes by Google is not a smooth affair by any means. Notably, as a result of updating process, old indexes do not simply yield to new indexes, but there is quite an haphazard movement in transition. It takes a couple of days for Google to complete its update. Especially during this period, both old and new indexes get their place on www.google.com, albeit alternatively or even in unpredictable ways before new indexes stabilize there for all to see. The fluctuations witnessed on Google between transition from old indexes to new indexes seem as if Google were dancing. Hence, in SEO parlance comes the word Google Dance. Varying indexes have a say in the final rankings just when PageRank calculation sets in action. So, the fluctuating indexes of your site should not be a cause of concern when Google is dancing. Wait for Google to come to a halt and you will see all the things stabilize. http://tc.eserver.org/30769.html http://tc.eserver.org/30769.html No webmaster worth his salt can rule out the indispensability of Google for enhancing the prospects of one's business potential the online way. The ways and means to augment your business statistics are fine as long as they are paving the way in your business interest. The fact is that end results are always important and determine the continuation of a set of strategies or tactics in the future. Notwithstanding the enormous benefits accruing from top positions in Google's rankings, you will end up to lose sight of the long term survival if you drive your business on a Google-only focus. http://tc.eserver.org/30766.html http://tc.eserver.org/30766.html Every webmaster nourishes the dream that his or her website will make it the big way. This is very much human because people carry out any task in ardent hope. What is more human out here is that earthy fellows like us base our aspirations more on speculation rather than specific set of steps undertaken to bring the dream a bit closer to reality. And this is not all, particularly in case of growth of a site which brings newer problems in the wake of its growth. It cannot be disputed that you can probably get some good web hosting on economy price. But if you expect top of the line service on this price, acknowedge gracefully that your are just asking for the moon. Probably you are not catching up with wisdom that business needs decisive investments. http://tc.eserver.org/30764.html http://tc.eserver.org/30764.html The emergence of Internet was, and still is a fascinating thing to happen in technology firmament. The ease and the comforts of connecting to people, defying geographical boundaries, and getting a global audience for businesses were unparalleled -- first of its kind ever. So wonderful a thing has, unfortunately, got its share of woes -- the connection speed. The bandwidth of Internet connectivity was considerable at the time when it was entirely new to the world. The newness of the medium did not let it know to the excited lots of users and beneficiaries. Gradually, when people wished for more speed, they earnestly expected that things will turn favorable in the times ahead. Strategy is not something entirely applicable to chart out the direction of a corporation. Yeah, Your web design has to be strategized as well if you wish to serve your target audience in business friendly manner. http://tc.eserver.org/30768.html http://tc.eserver.org/30768.html Google has earned its giant position in search engine marketplace through real innovative solutions, and of course, strategic moves all aimed at users ultimate convenience. It has been almost customary for Google to bring in some exciting features initially for a price then slashing the rate drastically to making it FREE for all. This sort of repeated move could be seen as first serving the target market with its innovative solutions, and later making it free to give many a business in similar or remotely similar categories a run for their money. Critics claims have to stand the test of contemporary business realities. http://tc.eserver.org/30765.html http://tc.eserver.org/30765.html Visually impaired people suffer from no faults of their own. This is quite worthy of consideration that a little more efforts toward adoption of certain features in your web site can help them retrieve information in the desired manner. Their ease of accessibility to your web site will not go unrewarded; they can well augment your business interests by turning into your most valuable customers. http://tc.eserver.org/30721.html http://tc.eserver.org/30721.html This is the recording of the presentation from the Catalyze Community monthly webcast featuring Charlie Kreitzberg on December 13, 2007. Charlie spoke on "Web 2 and You - How Web 2.0 Will Catapult Business Analysts and Usability Professionals into Center Stage" which examined his models for understanding Web 2.0 and explored the vast opportunities for professionals who define and design new software and websites. http://tc.eserver.org/30718.html http://tc.eserver.org/30718.html dConstruct is an affordable, one-day conference aimed at those building the latest generation of web-based applications. The theme for this year's conference is Designing the User Experience. The 2007 conference was held in September. This page aggregates recordings of all of the speakers or you can visit the link to download the podcasts. http://tc.eserver.org/30671.html http://tc.eserver.org/30671.html In a world where everything is designed to amaze and distract, it's awfully difficult to get a user's attention. Learn how to use new techniques such as lightboxes, pop-ups, windows, and fading messages with your Ajax tools to get your users' eyes on your content. http://tc.eserver.org/30677.html http://tc.eserver.org/30677.html In the age of the people-powered Web, allowing your readers to rate and review content on your site is critical. Discover just how easy it is to add rating and commenting features to a site with Ajax. http://tc.eserver.org/30670.html http://tc.eserver.org/30670.html XUL is a surprisingly easy way to build cross-platform browser extensions or even stand-alone applications. Discover how to build powerful, flexible Mozilla browser extensions that go beyond the capabilities of other tools like embedded scripting languages or CGI--because they're built right into the user's browser. http://tc.eserver.org/30674.html http://tc.eserver.org/30674.html JSON is an easy format to use for sending (and receiving) data that maps to objects, or even arrays of objects. In this final article of the series, you'll learn how to handle data sent to a server in the JSON format and how to reply to scripts using the same format. http://tc.eserver.org/30676.html http://tc.eserver.org/30676.html HTML 5 introduces new elements to HTML for the first time since the last millennium. New structural elements include aside, figure, and section. New inline elements include time, meter, and progress. New embedding elements include video and audio. New interactive elements include details, datagrid, and command. http://tc.eserver.org/30673.html http://tc.eserver.org/30673.html Have you ever wanted to bring the technical know-how of developerWorks straight to your workspace or personalized iGoogle, Netvibes, or My Yahoo page? Now you can with developer gizmos. It's the power of syndication at the click of the mouse: no programming, training, or registration required. Add any developerWorks custom feeds, or a developerWorks spaces portlet as a Google Gadget, Netvibes Module, or Yahoo Widget directly to your preferred syndication mashup, keep up with developerWorks feeds on your Apple iPhone, or download a developerWorks Gadget for Google Desktop with the content you select from developerWorks. http://tc.eserver.org/30675.html http://tc.eserver.org/30675.html Web 2.0 is well known for the fact that it's not built on breathtaking new inventions, but rather on renewed emphasis on age-old Web technologies. One of those age-old technologies that is enjoying a revival in Web 2.0 is bookmarklets. A bookmarklet is essentially a Web application shoehorned into a regular browser bookmark. This article includes a fully functioning bookmarklet and installation instructions you can use to highlight text on any Web page and search IBM developerWorks for that text. http://tc.eserver.org/30672.html http://tc.eserver.org/30672.html Construct a highly available Apache Web server cluster that spans multiple physical or virtual Linux(R) servers in 5 easy steps with Linux Virtual Server and Heartbeat v2. http://tc.eserver.org/30680.html http://tc.eserver.org/30680.html Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript + XML) programming techniques are increasingly dominating the world of Web application development. New developers are stepping into the world of Ajax development every day, and they come from disparate development backgrounds. Part 1 of this multipart series gives you a cheat sheet of Ajax development resources from an expert team of Ajax developers at IBM(R). The authors draw from their own ramp-up experiences to help you with practical information that will put you on a fast track to effective Ajax development. http://tc.eserver.org/30679.html http://tc.eserver.org/30679.html Web 2.0 repositories can help you create a flexible software architecture, which can easily be plugged into Web 2.0 communities and extranets. Creating a fluid system that also works in accordance with requirements for modifiability, performance, security, scalability, and reusability can be challenging. In this article, learn techniques to help ensure your Enterprise Web 2.0 architecture meets your quality requirements. http://tc.eserver.org/30678.html http://tc.eserver.org/30678.html Does it ever occur to you that today's Web developers could learn a thing or two from traditional computer programming? The cranky user talks about the foundations of software engineering and asks where in the Web those best practices have disappeared to.