Politics, lack of planning, overlooked details, and poor prioritizing can compromise your Web design or redesign effort. Justin James offers a simple roadmap to lead your project to a successful conclusion.

Time and time again, I have seen companies struggle with Web site design projects. Initial Web site design and redesigns of existing sites may each face a few different challenges, but overall, they are similar. My experience has been that these problems are not technical issues, but project management and cultural issues. Often, no one follows a game plan — they just blindly rush off and attempt to re/design the Web site with little forethought. On the other hand, I have also been through a number ofsuccessful Web site re/design projects (measured by, “Did we get a good-looking, usable Web site deployed in a reasonable amount of time?”). Here are some of the things I’ve learned to do that will help make any Web site design project go smoothly.

Note: This information is also available as a PDF download.

#1: Politely keep those who lack a clue out of the process

#2: Prototype on paper before coding

#3: Build your site map before you start designing

#4: Don’t worry about the home page or link names

#5: Forget about the content, too, while you’re at it…

#6: …But don’t let others forget about the content

#7: Organize the site around the users, not the organization

#8: Don’t overlook SEO, usability, and accessibility

#9: The details make the difference

#10: Have a game plan!

Continues @ http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=377

Continue Reading

Every day, we are presented with opportunities to help make someone’s day, or life even, a little bit better. When a new project comes in, we have a choice. We can take the easy route and just do what is being asked of us; or, we can choose to go beyond the assignment and look for a bigger opportunity to help make products and services more meaningful to people. Sure, it might be harder work than just doing what was asked, but from harder work comes greater reward. We just have to start asking different and bigger questions.

http://paulisakson.typepad.com

Related articles by Zemanta

• What Socrates Can Teach You About Social Media (jessenewhart.com)
• Persuasive design for sustainability (core77.com)

Continue Reading

Twitter – The Next Level of Information Distribution

These days an ever increasing number of us are finding we are falling victim to information overload.

With a simply overwhelming and ever-gowing number of websites and blogs, all veying for our attention, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to both keep up and take part in ‘the conversation’.

While the use of RSS feed readers has been a blessing in many respects, what with the ability to aggregate multiple sources and quickly assess what we want to read in more detail, you are still tied to having to find and add your own sites of interest and their corresponding feeds. There is also no means for immediate response or discussion.

Enter Twitter . . .

Firstly, I suggest, if you are new to Twitter, that you firstly read my article, Using Twitter … ‘The Smart Way’, to get yourself up to speed.

These days Twitter has become my main source of information, allowing me, through apps such as Tweetdeck, to continually receive the very latest information (links, feedback and commentary) on my desktop and in front of my eyes for immediate digestion, review and onward distribution. It’s like having my very own ‘peoples newswire’.

Another great key benefit of Twitter, is that it enables you to build your own network of news gatherers, writers and commentors. These can range from authorities in their niches, to news sources, to those that share interests with you, to friends and collegues. Each of these groups in turn have their own networks feeding them information.

Think of it as being plugged into one giant, ever-evolving brain.

Continues @ http://www.talkcontent.com

And you can follow us on /digitalassetman

Related articles by Zemanta

• Being Productive Online: Time-Management Lifehacks (scienceroll.com)
• Twitter: A workshop for journalists (mathewingram.com)
• Twitter as a Productivity Tool (pajamaprofessional.com)
• How to deal with the information overload from blogs, RSS and Twitter? (casesblog.blogspot.com)

Continue Reading

Then Opera does something actually quite cute with their Opera Face Gestures gag:

Looking ahead, we recognize the future importance of touch interfaces, but we believe that there is another input device that is already present in most new computers and it’s ready to enable a whole new way of user-interaction: the webcam.

Today we introduce Face Gestures, a revolutionary technology designed to make interacting with your browser easier and simpler on computers with cameras. Face Gestures lets you perform frequent browsing operations with natural and easy to make face gestures. By using an internal technology dubbed Face Observation Opera Language, we are able to recognize pre-determined facial expressions and match them to commands on the Opera browser.

http://ajaxian.com

Continue Reading

London 2012 aims for step change in walking and cycling habits with publication of new plans

The Olympic Delivery Authority’s new Walking and Cycling plans published today gives details on how £11.5m of investment will enable 385,000 spectators to “ride or stride” to the Games in 2012, and leave behind a legacy of permanent improvements to key routes between sporting hubs, thereby encouraging more people to walk and cycle to events in the future.

The ODA’s investment will see two new walking and cycling paths created and six more significantly improved. The new cycling paths will stretch from Finsbury Park to Victoria Park, where 5,000 new bike spaces will be provided, and from Epping Forest and the Wanstead Flats to Stratford.

An additional £7m will be invested into improving the Greenway, which is a 7km public footpath that runs from Victoria Park in Hackney, across the south of the Olympic Park and down to West Ham.

Continue reading…

Continue Reading