Blueprint

New SU home page design

2008-02-13T18:09:00Z

I'm sure it seemed like this blog had vanished. I suppose in many ways, it did. But it is coming back! Hopefully it will be updated more often. I can't promise I'll always stay on topic though. So expect a few goofy YouTube videos, etc.

Things have been very busy in the web world. The biggest news is the new SU home page redesign. It has been in the works for a couple of months now.. and it's wonderful to see it launched. Feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts. Keep in mind that there are still tweaks being made, tightening up the css, and then beginning the long process of moving all interior pages to the new look and feel.

In the wake of Virginia Tech

2007-04-19T15:34:00Z

Without a doubt it's been a turbulent week across the nation and around the world. All of us have been affected by this tradegy in some way, whether through people we knew attending or working at VT, or simply through the connection of higher education.

In light of this, I'd like to briefly touch on potential changes to our web presence. Keep in mind that we are currently coming up with a plan of action, so things may change. But in short, web communications needs to be better prepared to handle communications during a crisis. We are looking at a number of ways to optimize the SU website to be able to handle emergency communications.

One of the lessons learned by news organizations on the morning of 9/11 was that website traffic quickly becomes a high priority. Most news organizations began that morning displaying photos of what was happening at the towers. As more and more people found out what was going on, the website traffic skyrocketed and servers crashed one after another under the stress of the load. Slowly, the websites got stripped down, less images, less design, less ads. After a few short hours CNN's website was a simple white background with only text on the page. The amount of text was limited to bullet points of facts, rather then the long, detailed reports you normally find. It was essential to get the information out, in the most efficient manner possible.

The information itself is absolutely key. In a crisis, visual presentation is not the critical component. The priority is getting the facts out in the quickest way possible, keeping things clear and concise and easily accessible to everyone. The last thing you want is for someone to have to click on one link, then another, and another to find the phone number they need to call to find out if their children are alright.

In the case of Virginia Tech, the website adapted quickly to meet these essential requirements. The design was quickly stripped out, and the facts were posted in a clear way, with phone numbers and other resources right there. A number of students interviewed by the media have said they relied on the website for information as they waited patiently in their dorm rooms and classrooms.

With all of that said, Seattle University is putting together a plan. A website that is flexible and designed specifically to handle crisis communications. We will update everyone on the process as we move through it. We also invite any and all thoughts you might have on this. You can comment on this article directly, or if you prefer anonymity, you can use the website feedback link that is found at the bottom of the SU website.

It is my sincere hope that we are all able to take something away from this experience. We need to take an honest look at ourselves on every level and figure out ways that we can improve. Let's not make a tragedy worse by failing to learn something from it.

Want a website?

2007-03-06T21:52:00Z

Of course you do, everyone wants a website! But how do you go about it? Where do you find a web designer? How do you avoid being taken advantage of? How much should it cost?

The web community overall is fairly small. With the popularity of blogs, we're all able to share ideas and help eachother. At the same time, we're able to warn people about predatory web design companies out there. But it doesn't always reach the people who are directly affected. You guys.

So, we're going to begin a series of articles to help arm you with the knowledge you need when thinking about a website.

If you have had any bad experiences, or have specific questions you'd like addressed, please leave a comment. Hopefully we can do our part to reduce the number of people who are taken advantage of, or at the very least, take some of the guess work out of the process.

Yay for fun stuff!

2007-02-28T17:11:00Z

After the serious tone of the last post, I felt a need to lighten it up and post something a bit more lighthearted.

Photographing Squirrels by Scott Alan Johnson! If you enjoy them, be sure to let him know.

Please note that I cannot guarantee that females and males are equally represented in this photo collection. But really... they're squirrels. Enjoy!

Gender Diversity and the Web

2007-02-26T17:14:00Z

It's that time of year again! The blogosphere is buzzing with the latest version of the gender diversity issue.

For those who have not followed this polarizing topic in the past, basically it stems from the visibility of women at web conferences. Many people have voiced concerns that there are not enough female presenters/speakers at conferences. There are also questions about the number of women invited to speak at conferences, and the number of women who attend conferences.

It's very interesting to read what other people have to say on the issue. Some say it is a direct reflection of the web community, and that there are simply far more men then women. Others say that there are a growing number of women in technology but the number of female presenters doesn't match that growth. Still others believe it is a non-issue.

I have to say, just having gone to a conference myself, that I was fortunate to choose the one I did. Web Directions North had a good number of female speakers, volunteers, and attendees. But I can certainly imagine how odd it must be to be one of 10 attendees at a conference with no female speakers. I'm under the belief that diversity (in every sense of the word) is always a good thing.

Rather than rehash the entire conversation.. here are some links to current posts.

Gender diversity at web conferences (the post that started it all) by Jason Kottke
Diverse it Gets by Eric Meyer
Two questions about speaking, conferences, and diversity by Tantek
The diversity division by Jeremy Keith
Diversity isn't important.. and neither are standards or accessibility by Shelley Powers
On Conferences and Diversity by Jen Hanen
The Old Boys Club is for Losers by Anil Dash
Homogeneity? by Dave Shea

You are encouraged to express your opinions on this issue. Either leave a comment with your thoughts, link to your blog post on this issue, or link to an interesting post we don't have listed here.

New students and international engagement

2007-02-21T15:31:00Z

Based on requests from colleges and schools, we've added two pages of note: an audience view for new students and an index page for su's international engagement programs.

Introducing The Book

2007-02-17T21:32:00Z

Here's a funny, elaborate, Norwegian take on RTFM from Oystein & Meg via YouTube. A medieval support tech makes a house call...

(via BoingBoing)

Oh Canada...

2007-02-14T22:17:00Z

So here I am, back from my nearly week long visit to Vancouver, BC. There were so many great things that happened during the trip that I don't know where to begin. However, I do feel the best way to begin is by thanking everyone involved. It was my first web conference and I was amazed at how smooth everything was. So a HUGE thank you to John Allsopp, Maxine Sherrin, Derek Featherstone, and Dave Shea.

Rather then take you through a day-by-day breakdown, I'll just point you in the direction of the Web Directions North website. They've been posting notes from the presentations, along with the option of downloading presentations, and will soon be posting the podcast. You can also venture to Flickr and browse the near one thousand photos that have been tagged.

A few highlights:

Molly Holzschlag had a presentation focused on 'crimes against web standards' where she showed her worst code crimes. The audience were then given the chance to share some of their code crimes and were rewarded with free books.

Jared Spool talked about user interface and the irony that when you do a great job, no one notices. He also spoke about experience design and how products that people are passionate about (iPod, Netflix) ultimately do better than products that may be technically better (Blockbuster, Sansa) but don't evoke the same emotion. Jared also amused us with a few magic tricks and a great sense of humor.

Dave Shea and Veerle Pieters (who coincidentally has the best looking blog I've ever seen) gave a wonderful presentation on the design process. Everything from work space and lighting to finding inspiration to dealing with difficult clients. Geared mainly towards those who freelance but with elements that we can all learn from.

And as if two days of conferencing wasn't enough, there were parties sponsored by Adobe and Media Temple, as well as the optional trip to Whistler sponsored by Microsoft. Let me tell you, watching a bunch of web geeks attempt to be cool snow bunnies was quite amusing. I'm the one on the far left, in case you're wondering.

So, there you have it. If you're considering going to a conference, do it! It's a great way to network, meet some amazing people, and (hopefully) leave with new ideas, new tactics, and a renewed energy towards web design. I'm already looking forward to next year!

Microsoft uses their powers for good

2007-02-12T04:25:00Z

We're Mac users here in Web Communications, and as a web designer not wed to the Microsoft toolset, I've cursed Redmond's name on an almost weekly basis for the million ways they've made my job more difficult (Front Page 98, Microsoft CMS, proprietary "standards", breaking Flash embedding, grrrrrrr!)

However, I love the fact that they're supporting OpenID. This might actually be the end of web users having to maintain 1000 accounts. OpenID is a standard means of maintaining one user profile, password, etc. that you can then use with any participating site. Bravo!

Don't reinvent the wheel (or the login window)

2007-02-10T01:51:00Z

Most people take it for granted that design is a hotbed for creative thinking and uncommon approaches to common problems. However, user interface (ui) designers also have to balance their ingenuity with respect for the reliable elements users expect in their on-screen tools. Mess around with the expected behavior of a search form or even a registration process and people get frustrated quickly. To paraphrase Jacob Nielsen, it's not only acceptable for ui designers to borrow from their forebears, it's a necessity.

Thankfully, Blink Interactive is working to make it easier with their new design library blog. Thanks Blink!

Yahoo's Design Pattern Library is also really useful.

User requests, microformats

2007-02-06T22:04:00Z

By request, I've removed hyphens from the quicklinks menu to make keyboard browsing easier. In other words, you can find menu items starting with "A" by tabbing to the quicklinks menu and pressing the "A" key. Sounds weird, but I find this useful and so does at least one of our users, besides it was a quick fix.

By the way, if you have a strong opinion about any of our pages, click the feedback link located at the bottom of each page on the SU web site. Incidentally, we like it when you insult our mothers, so keep those messages coming.

The SU home page and "top-level" template now use hCard for organizational information in the footer. hCard is what's known as a microformat, or a structured way to present semantic data within the xhtml of your web page. Why is this important? Because it's a grassroots attempt to make the web more semantic, so your software can get more out of web pages; things like contact info and calendar items.

Why should you care? Well it's pretty esoteric at the moment, but future web browsers could make use of microformats in useful ways. Imagine if Internet Explorer had an "add to contacts" or "add to calendar" button that would find people and events on a web page and add it to Outlook for you or a "map this business" button that would render and print a map for you...okay, admittedly it is pretty nerdy and obscure, but it took 10 minutes, so I make no apologies.

Speaking of faculty doing great work on the web

2007-02-05T03:59:00Z

...Kansas State University professor Michael Wesch has a beautiful statement on the power of Web 2.0 rendered as an animated screencast. (via CollegeWebEditor)

Faculty blogging and tenure

2007-02-03T23:01:00Z

Adventures in Ethics and Science has an interesting discussion on faculty blogging, it's tenure implications, and the role of public outreach in higher-ed. Overall, I'm struck by the notion that university web content has a role in educating the public about the goings-on in academia.

I propose that communicating about important academic work and university marketing could, in a better world, be the same thing.

Excited about Vista?

2007-01-29T17:50:00Z

There may be a few obstacles. Anyway, this makes me laugh.

Berkeley Lab Notes

2007-01-28T18:02:00Z

The Berkeley Marketing department uses actual academic work to demonstrate the value of the institution. Berkeley Lab Notes is a great idea and an example of why great content is so much more important than flashy page design.