rose pruyne

Aside from the usual reasons why it’s silly to duplicate static content from Web page to Web page, here is yet another: Read the rest of this entry »

Soliciting Web site user feedback. Posting online surveys. E-mailing listservs. Pulling together focus groups. Is this the long and the short of the plan for guaging the effectiveness of your Web site?

If so, you will be rewarded with a wide scattershot of commentary, much of which is neither accurate nor usable. Read the rest of this entry »

Just when I was hoping for a resurgence of flaming skulls…

I recently heard tell of the following activity, parading as content migration to an enterprise level content management system. I am not making this up:

1. Copy large volumes of Web-content-to-be, page by page, into separate Dreamweaver files containing the design (created and sliced up in FireWorks)
2. Copy/paste said Dreamweaver files into content wells of the content management system
3. Repeat this activity ad infinitum until an entire Web presence is constructed in this fashion

When I heard this, something inside me snapped.
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I appreciate how Facebook has enabled me to connect with colleagues, and (younger) family members in a manner that is both informative and expressly cordial. It attracts students like Nutella attracts chocolate lovers, and because of that, I see interesting potential here. In fact, one of our faculty members at Penn State plans to try running his human-computer interaction course through Facebook this fall. Definitely worth pursuing. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been experimenting with creating custom themes in WordPress, one of which is the interface of this blog. WordPress is remarkably easy to customize. Read the rest of this entry »

If you are in any way responsible for a Web site, you should have some understanding of the principles of Extreme Programming. Cultivated as a discipline of software development, it is a combination of ensuring that designs remain uncomplicated, centering changes around user requirements, and employing the concept of the “Whole Team.” The result is that small changes are released as they are needed - and endorsed - by the client. Read the rest of this entry »

Consider the dashboard of your automobile.

Aside from a number of extras that have crept in over the decades, it’s essentially configured the same as the dash of the car you drove as a kid.

In fact, the design of the automobile’s critical controls hasn’t significantly altered since the Model T Ford. It’s worked for more than 100 years, and we love it. Read the rest of this entry »