On knowing the 'Why'

Dave Shea has posted some thoughts on overcoming the dreaded designers' block.

I'm most interested in this coment:

What's more important than a planned process, however, is the due diligence (DD) that must happen before a design begins. Gathering materials like existing branding, project objectives, content, and anything else available is essential for the design process.

I couldn't agree more.

Too many designs (and I've been guilty of this in the past too) are just slapped together without thinking about the website's objectives. Logo here, nav there, photo here...

I had a meeting with a client a few days ago and we were discussing improving the conversion rate for their website. Their home page looked nice in a generic sort of way, used their logo and colours, but it had no real purpose. We identified a couple of concrete activities that a visitor could do, but the design in no way encouraged anything.

So here's what I'm thinking. Whether you have designers' block or not, here's what you should have before you even think about starting:

1. Existing branding


2. Project objectives


3. Content (or at the very least an outline of what the content will be)


4. "Anything else available is essential for the design process" - which should include:
   
   
   
   • client preferences (if any)
   
   
   • potential audience or target market
   
   
   • Specific actions you'd like the reader to take
   
   
   
   

If you don't have this information, you'll really battle to make your design work. It might look nice, but the commercial reality is it needs to do more than that.

CSS Zen Garden Entry

I am not the author is this page - but you have to admire their skill and dedication. One would have to assume that this design was rejected by Dave Shea, which is a real shame, as it certainly "explores the limits of CSS"!

Here's the link - if you dare!

Man fired over weblog accusation

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that a man in Britian has been fired for badmouthing his employer in his Blog. Apparently he complains that his dismissal "raises some disturbing issues of freedom of speech". Well - what did he expect to happen? What would you do if you were his employer? I know what I would have done!

Sure, he has a right to free speech. But you can't go badmouthing someone in the public domain and think nothing will come of it. Why post something in a blog thinking that nobody will read it, or make the connection?

Sorry - but I just can't feel sorry for this guy. "You reap what you sow"...

Here's the story:

An employee of British bookseller chain Waterstone's has been fired for bringing the company into disrepute after he made entries on his weblog site identifying it in code as "Bastardstone's" and accusing it of slavery.

Joe Gordon said he was dismissed from the company's Edinburgh store on the grounds of "gross misconduct" and "bringing the company into disrepute," although he had never identified the company by its proper name.

"I did not set out to attack the company in some systematic manner," he said.

But Waterstone's had refused to accept his defence that the blog entry had just been a satirical spoof, written at home in his own free time.

In the blog, called Woolamaloo Gazette, Gordon gave his company the code-name Bastardstone's, called his line manager Evil Boss, and complained about his working hours and what he said was "slavery".

A company spokesperson confirmed the dismissal, saying: "There's an ongoing disciplinary procedure, and Mr Gordon has the right to appeal twice. We can make no further comments until then".

The dismissal "raises some disturbing issues of freedom of speech," Gordon said.

AFP

Where'd Adam Get That Colour Scheme?

Adam Polselli has explained one way he finds inspiration for colour schemes. This is probably an old page - but I only just found it. It's brilliance lies in it's simplicity.

Stuck for colour? Look around!

Web Essentails 04 Resources

Just a short post - if you're looking for some light reading, here are the transcripts and presentations from Web Essentials 04 in Sydney.

Well worth going over again. (And again!)

Firefox Screen-Reader Emulator

Fangs is a plugin for Firefox that produces a text-based output of what a screen reader might see. Clever name, considering the most popular screen reader for Windows is called Jaws...

Couple Fangs with FoxyVoice, which does actually read the contents of your Firefox window, and I guess you've got the next best thing to a real screen reader!

A mini for me, please!

I've been hunting around for a second-hand Mac to do some testing on. I was hoping to spend about $500 and then another $230 for OSX. The the local Mac shop told me about the new Mac Mini.

Perfect!

A tiny box (about 16cm square by 5cm high) that I can plug my existing monitor, keyboard and mouse into. $800 for a brand new Mac! So when they arrive in town in early February you can bet what I'll be doing...

In their own words:

Perfect for Programmers

Set a space-saving Mac mini atop your workstation PC and add a KVM switch to share keyboard, monitor and mouse. Mac OS X includes free developer tools for Mac, UNIX and Java. Test out a Mac version of your latest creation, instantly. Pretty soon you’ll be using the Mac full-time, with that PC relegated to the testbed.

I was thinking about getting the base model, but I'm pretty sure that if I have one of these on my desk I'll start using it for more than just testing. Maybe I should go for the 1.42G model...