Tag Archives: Production

Show 82: Microsoft drones

Posted in Classic shows on by Paul Boag

This week on Boagworld: Paul talks about managing enquiries, Marcus asks whether you should add links to your website on client sites and Rob Borley talks about ASP .net.

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Staying Creative

I came across a great article this week by Keith Robinson about how to keep being consistently creative. Constantly being creative can be a challenge sometimes, especially when a chunk of your time is spent on less creative activities like coding or consultancy. This article provides some incredibly practical advice about how to keep those creative juices flowing.

The one part that particularly resonated with me was the need for time to play. I am very fortunate at Headscape that Chris and Marcus let me have time to experiment and try new stuff. The result is that I am much more creative than when I used to do production work all the time.

However, this article also offers advice for those of you who don’t have the same luxury. It talks about how to force yourself to engage on even the most dull project as well as the need to pursue your own projects and interact with other creative people.

WCAG Samurai

Over a year ago now Joe Clark published an article on A List Apart entitled “to hell with WCAG 2.0“. Following this slamming attack he went on to create the WCAG Samurai who would develop an alternative to WCAG 2 based on WCAG 1. A year later and we have a working draft of WCAG 2 as well as the recently released WCAG Samurai guidelines.

I have to say the WCAG Samurai Errata is a lot easier to understand than WCAG 2.0 but WCAG 2.0 has come a long way since Joe Clark’s article. Personally, the arrival of the WCAG Samurai guidelines have generated mixed feels in me.

I not an accessibility expert and so am naturally drawn to the Samurai guidelines. They are easy to understand and don’t use confusing or vague language. However, at the same time I have a feeling that yet another set of guidelines is only going to confuse matters.

I guess my hope is that all of the different interpretations on accessibility will make clients realize that accessibility is about more than confirming to a series of checkpoints and encourage them to start thinking in depth about their accessibility policy.

Movable Type 4 (Beta)

Yes I use Movable Type. I know the rest of the world uses WordPress but movable type works for me. I run the boagworld website on movable type and have no intention of changing so don’t bother writing in trying to convince me.

That said, I wanted to point out the recent release of a beta for Movable Type 4. I have to say I haven’t installed it yet but it looks good. Its still in beta and apparently buggy in places but some of the features look impressive.

They have revamped the interface which in my opinion was better than WordPress anyway. They have improved the content management capabilities, finally added a WYSIWYG editor and added support for Open ID.

If you are not already a Word Press drone then check it out.

Mobile web developers guide

This week the dev.mobi website has released a comprehensive guide for mobile web developers.

If you have listened to this podcast for any length of time you will know that I am constantly banging on about the mobile web. Developing websites that work on mobile devices is going to become ever bigger business and although it is a challenging area, I think it will be a huge niche for those willing to embrace it.

Of course, at the moment it is a relatively immature market and finding good information can be tricky. However, this guide looks very good. I can’t claim to have read it all yet but from what I have seen this is a must read if you are looking to explore the area of the mobile web further.

Agony uncle: Promotional links

I was ferreting around in the forum for something to chat about and found this question from Remy:

I was wondering what the opinion was on adding a “Site built by Such and Co.” at the footer of a client web site.





I remember thinking it was normal practice in the late 90s and early 00s, but the more I look around today the less and less I see other web design/developer firms doing it.





I do think it’s a cleaner design if you don’t add a link off to a random (to the user) web site, but I remember hearing on one of the podcasts on boagworld that this is how this had contributed to Headscape’s (page)ranking on Google – i.e. by having well ranked web sites linking back to Headscape.





Just want to see what other people thought before I go and slap a nasty ‘who dunit’ at the bottom of my client’s web site.




This is a fairly old post and there’s a lot of interesting and useful stuff on there. But I thought that chatting things through, and letting people know what Headscape does, could be useful.

It generates business

It really does. Lots of it. I can honestly say that I think our credit (which was, interestingly, on a separate credits page) on the old National Trust site played a major part in whether or not Headscape would have survived its first couple of years.

I try to make sure that I always ask new enquirers how they discovered Headscape. Off the top of my head, I would say that around 1 in 20 say they followed a link from one of the sites we have built. We are currently talking to a prospect that followed the link on one of the university sites we developed.

Don’t expect a link

Whether a link appears is up to the client. Ask them if they mind. If they do, ask if you could have a link on a credits page or possibly just on a single page (e.g. ‘About this site’ if they have one or the contact page).

If they still mind, leave it.

We formalise the arrangement in our terms and conditions, as follows:

The Contractor shall have the right to incorporate, in a readily viewable location, a credit and hypertext link in the Deliverables.

Use useful wording

Useful wording to a search engine that is. For example, ‘Designed by Headscape’ doesn’t really help page ranking at all, whereas ‘Web design by Headscape’ does as it includes the search term ‘web design’.

Beware CMS based sites!

There is always the possibility that doing this could backfire. If a client has control over aspects of a site’s presentation then there is always the possibility that they could make a nasty mess of your excellent work. You have to ask yourself whether a link, in this case, is valuable.

Client corner: Handling enquiries

The idea of the client corner section is that we tackle questions clients have. However, this week I answer a problem I am facing myself; how to handle enquiries better. We get enquiries from the Headscape website and I just don’t think we handle them very well. I always have the feeling some are getting lost and when I go away on holiday they just don’t get answered. After some thought on the subject I think I have come up with some enquiry handling techniques that might help.

Ask the expert: Rob Borley on ASP .net

I often get people asking to know more about the way we work as Headscape. What technologies do we use, what approaches do we take, how do we make business decisions? To be honest I often avoid this questions because I don’t want this podcast to feel too much like a Headscape sales pitch. However, several times I have been asked by people why Headscape works mainly with ASP .net instead of PHP or Ruby on Rails so I thought we might take a look at that decision.

Knowing little about server side coding myself I thought it was best to get Rob Borley (our technical lead) onto the show to talk about the decision we made in going down the .net route.

Its actually a really interesting segment that gives a real insight into how we run our business and how we go about making decisions in regards to technology.

2007

Posted in News on by Paul Boag

Well I am back from my Christmas break and I am really looking forward to 2007. In particular I can’t wait to get going on the new .net podcast and the revised boagworld show.

It was a great Christmas this year. I got a Nikon D50 and so my flickr feed has exploded. Combined with my new digital picture frame it has been a typically gadgety Christmas.

Of course it was hard to come back to work, especially when your son burst into tears because daddy won’t be around as much to play with him. However, on the upside I get to podcast again which I really enjoy.

Changes to boagworld

We are revamping the boagworld show. Towards the end of last year it was becoming a bit stale and both of us were having trouble getting enthusiastic about it. The new show will be shorter, snappier and split into clearly defined segments.

The bit I am most excited about is the new “Ask an expert” section. This will include various “experts” answering questions submitted by you the listeners. Already I have answers from Jeremy Keith and Christian Heilmann; however loads of other people have agreed to take part.

Practical Web Design becomes .net

Of course it is not just the boagworld show that is changing. We are also relaunching the Practical Web Design podcast in a new form from the publishers of .net. This show is going to be totally different to anything I have done before and I have a mixture of fear and excitement about it. Its going to be a round table discussion via skype made up of numerous well known web design names as well as a few that you need introducing to! We already have a list of over 20 people who are willing to come on the show and I am sure this will get even bigger once the show is launched.

My fear comes from the technical side of production. Skype isn’t always the most reliable technology but hopefully it will be up to the task. If not then we will have to think again. However, you never know until you try.

As for timescales, well I am not quite sure when we will launch the .net show. However, boagworld will be back on Tuesday 9th January and will now always go out on a Tuesday.

Boagworld meetup

Finally, I also have the boagworld meetup in London to look forward to. I have met the occasional boagworld listener before at conferences etc, but it will be nice to meet a load of people in one go. Currently there are 22 people attending and that’s before I have announced it on the podcast. It should be a cool evening.

A muddled mind

Posted in Working in web design on by Paul Boag

Last week we did a podcast on the WAI accessibility guidelines and, after my blunder, I thought it might be worth having a go at persuading you that actually I am right and the WAI guidelines are wrong!

Last week we did a podcast on the WAI accessibility guidelines where I made a fairly major blunder on one of the checkpoints. Unsurprisingly this has led to a lot of entirely justifiable joking at my expense. However, now that I am suitably humiliated I thought it might be worth having a go at persuading you that actually I am right and the WAI guidelines are wrong (well not wrong as such just slightly lacking)!

Panicking in a podcast

Producing a podcast is a strange experience and very different from blogging. When you write a blog you can consider every word you use and make sure you are 100% happy with it before posting. Podcasting isn’t like that. Sure, you can script out what you are going to cover and can even edit it to some extent in post production. However, at the end of the day you have to think on your feet and keep things moving. Most of the time I can pull it off, but every now and then I drop a clanger and last weeks show was a perfect example.

The blunder

In the show we were working through the various WAI checkpoints when we reach checkpoint 3.2 which says:

Create documents that validate to published formal grammars.

Now much to everybody’s amusement I went off on one talking in great depth about how it was important that the content on our sites are grammatically correct in order to help those with cognitive disabilities. Poorly written content, I argued, is hard to follow when you have a cognitive disability like dyslexia.

Of course this is not what the guideline is about at all. Rather it refers to ensuring your code validates and that you do things like declare a doctype.

The reason

So why was I so horribly confused? Well obviously this was largely due to my own stupidity however I was also thrown by the fact that earlier in the day I had been reading some fascinating material from Mencap.

So I was right after all *cough*

Mencap is one of the UK’s leading charities dealing with learning disabilities and they have produced some excellent material relating to cognitive disabilities and the web. If you have time I highly recommend downloading the following two PDF documents:

Am I making myself clear (1.3mb)

Guide to making your website more accessible (82kb)

Both of these documents are, unsurprisingly, well written and very easy to read. The advice they provide (including some vague references to good grammar!) helps not only those with disabilities but anybody reading the copy on your site.

An overlooked art

Well written content is an overlooked art and one that we as web designers generally ignore. After all, it is the client’s job to write the content and so it is not really our concern.

The trouble is few places teach you how to write good copy for the web and fewer still help you cater for cognitive disabilities. The WAI guidelines only make passing reference to it and web designers often fail to advise their clients on best practice. The result is that clients are left floundering not really knowing where to begin.

These two documents are an excellent starting point for anybody writing content for their website. In fact they are so good they complete distracted me on my last podcast.

Well, that’s my excuse and I am sticking to it!

Website storyboarding

Posted in Design on by Paul Boag

With a project as complex as producing a new website, there is a lot of room for misunderstanding and confusion. That is why it is so important to have a clear specification of what the site will do and how it is structured. Enter the HTML storyboard.

Molly Holzschlag on her site has raised the issue of prototyping techniques and different ways of storyboarding a website. It would appear that everybody has his or her own method of doing this so I thought I would throw my approach into the ring.

Why storyboarding is important

Before I tell you how I go about storyboarding a site, let us recap on why it is so important. The structure and content of a site can have profound effects on design, budget, choice of technology and delivery timescales. Without a storyboard, there is room for confusion as to what exactly the nature of the site is. This can lead to last minute changes that in turn push out deadlines and increase costs. A good storyboard can provide everybody with a clear understand of the sites scope and minimise any late additions.

My approach

As I have already said, there are many approaches to storyboarding but my preferred approach is to create an HTML storyboard. This involves building a completely un-styled outline of the site using HTML. Although the storyboard does not include every individual page on the site, it does try to cover the major functional areas and main sections. Each page in the storyboard will include the main navigation, related links, a functional description of the page, and some notes on content for that page. Although each page has no design elements, it will indicate all of the major elements to appear on each page. Sometimes I also try to approximate the position of these elements to give a better impression of the final site.

The benefits of this approach

I believe that producing an HTML storyboard has several advantages beyond the improved communication I have already mentioned.

  • It allows the client to navigate around the storyboard as if it is the final site. This helps them get a much better feel of how things fit together.
  • You can also carry out valuable usability testing against this kind of wireframe
  • It is possible to layer additional css formatting on top of the HTML in order to try out different design concepts
  • If built right these HTML storyboards can also act as the basic HTML structure for the final site as well therefore reducing overall production time

Conclusion

Do I always use this approach? No. Sometimes the site (or budget) is too small to justify the work involved. I have also come to recognise that some of the theoretical benefits listed above do not always pan out in practice. However, on the right project, implemented in the right way, this can be a very powerful tool. A good HTML storyboard can act as the road map for the entire project.

The opportunities of Podcasting

Posted in Classic shows on by Paul Boag

There has been a lot of talk about Podcasting over the last couple of weeks with the latest version of iTunes now supporting the technology. But what exactly is a PodCast and how if at all, can it benefit your organisation.

Sometimes it feels like the whole world has gone iPod crazy. iPod has spawned the next generation of music devices and single handedly changed the fortunes of Apple. But even though it is near on impossible to have avoided the iPod you may yet have escaped the phenomena of Podcasting.

What is Podcasting?

In many ways the PodCast is a natural extension of blogging. It allows anybody with a microphone and an internet connection to publish a radio show/blog that can be subscribed and downloaded to any MP3 player. PodCasts cover every imaginable subject from science fiction to gardening and are produced by enthusiastic amateurs and large corporations alike. They range from being entire radio shows such as those published by the BBC to short 5 minute bulletins.

It is still very much an emerging technology but it has seen much larger adoption than many other such technologies especially among the younger iPod generation.

How could it benefit my organisation?

Although largely untested I believe there are some real business opportunities in Podcasting. Podcasting provides a powerful new marketing and communication medium that is almost completely unexploited.

Of course the opportunities for organisations to utilise PodCasts are largely limited to those groups who are trying to reach the demographic that uses MP3 players. Currently this seems to be teenagers, students and young male professionals with disposable income. However there is an expectation that this audience will broaden significantly over the coming months.

Higher education PodCasts could contain hints and tips on university life, interviews with existing students and even demo tracks from student bands.

Nevertheless, for those trying to reach this demographic there are some interesting opportunities. Take for example the higher education sector that is always looking for new ways to attract school leavers. They could use popular existing PodCasts to advertise their courses or even run their own casts. These could contain hints and tips on university life, interviews with existing students and even demo tracks from student bands. Many university student unions also run their own radio stations which could be tapped for content.

With a bit of imagination it soon becomes apparent that PodCasts are an excellent way of connecting with a generation who are extremely unreceptive to traditional forms of marketing.

Click here for additional uses of Podcasting in the educational sector

How do we create a PodCast?

Because Podcasting is designed to open up broadcasting to everybody the process of producing a PodCast is very straightforward and there are many pieces of software that automate much of the technical process.

The real challenge is ensuring the quality of the PodCast doesn’t undermine the message being communicated.

The average PodCast listener is used to quality media and as a result has high expectations. The production value will be key to the Casts success. A combination of good content, professional vocal presentation and quality music will make your PodCast stand out from the crowd. In many cases finding this balance can be hard to achieve and could require the use of professional agencies to assist in the production process at least initially.

Looking beyond the PodCast

I would like to leave you with one last thought. At the end of the day a PodCast is just a downloadable MP3 track and so there is no reason why you need to limit the content you produce to a PodCast. What about broadcasting directly from your site or allowing users to subscribe to an email version of the Cast. Podcasting really has opened up a world of possibilities.