Now that, WA Web Week is well and truely put to bed, with Edge of the Web, WebJam9 and the WA Web Awards done and dusted; it’s now time to inject some life back into this blog.   Yes the posts have been a bit scant of late.  Sorry about that, the real world has been getting in the way.

So you have a site that you have lovingly designed coded and integrated into your CMS of choice.   You’ve delivered it to the client, perfect.  Not a pixel, word or image out of place, following industry best practice.  A work of art, electro-prefecto.

A few months later you review the site in passing.   It’s a complete mess, all the layout is using fonts, tables and there are pictures that are just resized 2 meg inserts. Plus what’s with this animated gif banner it now has.  It’s the classic showcase gone wrong.

Finding an overall solution to this type of problem, as you know, isn’t that easy. Like most of the web industry issues, it just doesn’t have a one size fits all solution. However there are a range of measures you can take  that will help reduce the pain.  Now the main limiting factor on all these solutions is the client’s budget (like that’s a new aspect, eh).

• Get Content Early

  Seems like a bit of a no brainer, but knowing all the major content layout requirements before you finish the UI design is major boon.   That way you can allow for those special cases. It’s the old 80/20 on these things, with the special cases requiring the most effort.  It can be argued when this level of UI for specific information types gathering should be done and by whom, at the low resolution of the design with the Information Architect and User Interaction Designer, or later with Front End Developer/Designer.  One thing is for sure don’t provide for this and the client will just stylise the best they can.   Mind you it’s impossible to allow for everything.

• Involve the Client

  Remember it’s not your website, it’s the clients.  So involve them, get them putting content into the CMS way before you have even wrapped a design around it.  This allows for two things.   The client gets to play with the CMS, and you get to see the content as it comes in and allow for it in the content design (see above).   Now it’s a good idea to still determine what that content is going to be so the proposed UI can take maximum advantage of it, and don’t get too many surprises.

• Educate

  Now you are going to have to training the  client in the use of your CMS and maybe a little bit more than just the technical basics. I’m not suggesting you get uber technical or the like with the under lying HTML. But things like the basics of what is a semantic layout (ranking headers). Basic layout methods for the relevant information types, like when to use tables, lists, definition lists, blockquote, images and the like.  In a way you are just tying to educate for the general best practices for information and report layout.

  Considering providing a style guide can help, sometimes.  Some places will use it like a bible for the layout of the web site, others will just ignore it,  your should get to know the client well enough to make this choice.

• Trim Back the CMS

  Given all the education in the world, it may pay to trim back the functionality of your CMS rich text editor (RTE).  Taking out the font size and color changers that insert font tags.  And  then allow for the use of class selects if you can.

  I know this is asking for the impossible, but parsing and cleaning up a word document cut and pasted in the RTE wouldn’t come a miss either, even to the extend of removing font tags, extra classes and the like.

• Web Standards, Break Them, Sometimes

  Of course if you go down the route of allowing clients to style via using classes, I will assume that you have very meaningful class names that can be easily understood for what they do by the client. Using classes like “image-aligned-right”, “text-indent-left-one-tab” or “large-highlighed-text”   Now this may not be the ideal in terms of best practice, but it’s a rule you have to break if you want clients to use classes and CSS style layouts, sometimes we have the break a few eggs.

• Do Nothing

  In most cases people will be used to the word processing rendering model; where there are only limited number of general information types and everything else is laid out via a table.  Doing this predates the web. That’s right, MS-Word and Word Prefect have a lot to answer for (showing my age now).   Hence with these types of ingrained information display models it becomes hard to break the mold.

  So why bother, just ensure they have a sense of pride and know what looks good and not.  At the end of the day you can’t control it.  And frankly does it really matter if they get it wrong and use tables for layout within the CMS or use font tags.  This is better than misplaced header tags. Maybe over time you can educate the client into using a best practice.  But at present it’s just easier for a client to use what we would consider bad practice to layout the information, live with it, you are not to blame.

So what do you do to avoid the digital disaster, if anything? Are there any other special things you do to ensure the client maintains to the site as you both initially envisioned?

In a few weeks there is going to be the biggest web event of the Western Australian calendar year. Not just the Edge of the Web conference, there is also Webjam, four workshops and the WA Web Awards all in one roller coaster week.

One of the keynote speakers and workshop presenter at the Edge of the Web conference is Derek Featherstone. Derek is particularly renown for his straight forward and often enlightening approach to accessibility.

The other day I took the opportunity to discuss with Derek his motivation, the future of accessibility and his forthcoming workshop.

MWNB:

You were recently in Australia for Web Directions South 2008, last month, and previous to that in 2006, and 2005. And now in a few weeks you are making the trip back down to Australia for the Edge of the Web. So what is it really about Australia that makes it so attractive, or are you just returning to get more triathlon tips?

DF:

Since my first trip down under in 2005, I’ve just wanted more and more! The timing always seems perfect - just as we’re starting to turn cold here at home (Ottawa, Canada) - I get to sneak away for a while to the beautiful weather. And, now that I’ve been there for several trips, it really does feel like another home. I’m always welcomed by wonderful people that are really switched on to accessibility, user experience and the web in general. For me, it was a no-brainer to accept the invitation to EOTW.

MWNB:

Recently, in Australia at least, there has been a lot of promotion and discussion on accessibility. To the point that in many circles the case for considering accessibility appears to have been won, allowing web designers and developers alike to relax their guard. This is turn has allowed the government and corporate sector to fall back on believing that accessibility issues are no longer important at all. Given Australia’s soft legislative approach to accessibility how does one get it back on the corporate agenda.

DF:

The case for considering accessibility appears to have been won

I’m not sure this is the case at all. I mean, we all say we consider it, but what do we actually do about it. Yes, I’ll admit that in many cases, the battle for “old school” accessibility may have been won, and there are scores of people that put that into practice every single day. But — we need to keep plugging away to move things beyond consideration into action. And - as we continue to innovate on the web, so too, we must with accessibility.

Getting it back on the corporate agenda might be somewhat difficult - I suspect a lot of people think they’re already doing accessibility really well. However, if we simply ask them if their innovations in accessibility are keeping up with the rest of the innovations they are pushing, I think a lot of people will answer that it hasn’t.

MWNB:

Within web application development circles there is a slow
movement off the corporate intranet of RIA systems into the web space. Traditionally this has been seen as a bad thing in terms of accessibility, as Flash and Silverlight have always been seen as the
evil ugly sister in terms of accessibility. But of late there seems to be a change in this perception in terms of accessibility. So is RIA the future over HTML?

DF:

Ah, to have a crystal ball

For certain contexts, both now and in the forseeable future, HTML of some sort is a perfectly capable format. For documents, certainly, and even simple web applications, what we have now works, and works quite well.

It can easily be argued that more interactive technologies such as Flash and Silverlight hold much promise and can be much more usable than the most static and traditional HTML format. E-learning and data visualization experiments are prime examples of how these technologies can be used to help communicate our messages in an engaging and interactive way to everyone.

There are loads of great examples of how these technologies come together to create interactive narratives at (the aptly named) http://www.interactivenarratives.org. The site was founded by Andrew DeVigal, who currently serves as the multimedia editor of The New York Times. The work he has done there is brilliant in terms of how it
engages the person viewing the site. What if we could take that same approach to web applications and create an immersive means to interact with data and with each other?

Yes. I’d still like that crystal ball, please.

MWNB:

Over the last two years the relevancy of the W3C and all it’s
forcoming guidelines has been drawn into question, time and time again. Of note in this area in terms of accessibility are the upcoming WCAG 2 and WAI-ARIA, are you confident these two are going
to make any impact at all.

DF:

Yes, actually, I am.

WCAG 2 takes a big step forward to provide guidance for making things accessible that aren’t necessarily HTML. It will help with creating accessible PDFs, Silverlight, Flash, and other technologies that are yet to come. For that reason alone, I’m excited about WCAG 2 — its technology agnostic approach will help developers meet accessibility needs.

Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) has been in the works for some time, and we’re finally seeing support in mainstream browsers and assistive technologies. I’ll be perfectly honest - we needed it to be ready about three years ago, so when it finally does come about, it’ll be most welcome. It is a missing piece to the puzzle of accessible RIAs right now, so I’m very happy to see continued progress on that front.

MWNB:

While you are in Australia next month you are presenting a workshop at the Edge of the Web. Hat tip by the way for your Web Directions Workshop. Is this workshop going to be the usual cold theory of accessibility 101 that we have seen trotted out by various accessibility consultants over the years or will it be different and have that “Featherstone” magic.

DF:

I’m ecstatic you enjoyed the full-day version in Sydney at Web Directions South — the workshop I’m doing at EOTW will be the same core content in a half-day. Our goal is to share experiences, ideas and solutions with designers and developers so that they can walk away with concepts and techniques that help them question their practices and those of their teams. Definitely not Accessibility 101, and hopefully magic!

MWNB:

Thanks Derek and I’ll see you at the Edge of the Web.

So if you are interested in accessibility or just feel you need to learn a little more on this critical subject, I would be getting along to Derek’s keynote Journey to the Edge of the Web and workshop Real World Accessibility for Ajax and Web Apps on the Edge of the Web.

I was having a discussion the other day with some fellow web designer friends on the skills that you required to be stay in this field long term.

Sure we all agreed you need to at least have the core design skills, understanding of layout, colour theory, typography and the usual tricks of the trade. The platform that you used to deliver your designs was immaterial, be that Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks or the like it didn’t really matter, the end result was what was important. That’s a given.

To succeed really well in this field, we also agreed you really need to be able to code in HTML and CSS, and I don’t mean a little bit, but really well and understand the rendering issues with the different browsers on the market at the time, or at least be able to do this.

Something More

Now that was all very well and good for the situation where you are working in a organisation where you only have one role in the production of a web site, that being the design of the user interface visuals.

But what happens if you are working for a smaller firm or are a freelancer. Suddenly you may from time to time take on roles or be asked questions on topics that are frankly totally outside of your abilities. After all you just do the “design” right. Do you just wing it and hope for the best?

If you look at the progression of the web industry until recently it has focused on people with specialised skills. But it has also had a wave effect of supplementary skill flow on over the years.

In the old specialisation days you would be just doing the photoshop files, the design. However slowly over time you are suddenly doing the HTML and CSS. Then issues such as usability and accessibility are being brought up, and the finger is being pointing at you as it is your “design”. Now the wave is moving again, as Cameron Adams points out in his interview with Miles Burke, Designers are being asked to just add a little ajaxian type features to sites. Suddenly you need to know JavaScript as well. But you scream thats a developer thing. Sorry no, not anymore.

Things are Changing

If you haven’t noticed it’s a trend, that has been happening for while, people are saying, and rightly too, that designers with just design skills in a few years, no matter how kick arse their designs are going to be a dinosaur of the past in the web industry.

Now I’m not talking about becoming a gun with all these skills and moving away from your love of design. Far from it, but from a career view it does pay to stretch one’s self a little, especially in areas you are not familiar with such as:

1. Information Architecture


   Sure if the site is simple you can get away with not doing this, but if there is a good deal of content, you really are going to have to consider the findability of the information. The field of Information Architecture has number of very easy to use techniques that any designer can apply. 


2. General User Experience 


   I’m often surprised the number of designers that don’t consider a few simple things in the area of user experience. There are again a few basic skills and techniques you can learn in this area that will make your designs a little more user focused, which is a good thing.


3. User Testing


   Now I don’t expect every designer to become a professional in this area. However even just conducting a few user tests with real users will again change the way you do things and think about design forever. Now be warned this really is a skill you need to sit down and learn. It’s really not something you can just pick up run with. 


4. Javascript 



   We all know that we are being asked to add just a few “tricks” to the web site interfaces we build to make them easier to use, Most of the time this involves the use of Javascipt. Maybe it’s time you learn this language and the correct way to use it, or at least one of the many frameworks, like jQuery.


5. Interactive Interface Design

   Sure I know this, you say. But do you really. Are you totally across all the best interface design methods and techniques in an ajaxian, RIA environment. Or are you just churning out the same old stuff. Be honest, we all get stuck in a rut on this one from time to time. Maybe time to have a look at this area.


6. Accessibility

   Are your designs that accessible. Do you think about accessibility when you are designing. Are you really ready for WCAG 2 or ARIA. 


7. Usability



   So you can design fantastic web sites, but how usable are they. Sure you and your team can use them, but can the public, can the target audience. Do you really have a handle on usability throughout the design process or is just something you kind of tack on the end of the design process or leave for the developers. 


8. Backend Coding

   I’m not suggesting you become a guru on Ruby on Rails or Cold Fusion or even PHP, but maybe you should at least understand a little what those blocks of code in those files on the server are doing. I personally went down this road for about 5 years doing part-time coding in Cold Fusion and a little PHP. Can’t say I’m a gun at them. But at least I can read it and understand it.


9. Mobile Device Design



   Stop ignoring it. It’s not going to go away, you have to start looking at mobile phone design today. Yes right now. If you don’t the wave of opportunity of these cheap web communication devices will be gone. And you will be the design dinosaur.

Harsh reality check, maybe. I know it would be cool to just be able to just do design forever, that would be sweet, eh; but frankly thats not going to happen. Time to refresh those skills I think.

Now once you have gained some new skills, please remember you are still not going to be as good as the specialist doing it day in day out. But hey then they aren’t going to be a gun designer like you either. So if in doubt ask a colleague who is focused on that aspect, don’t try and wing it, that’s for cowboys, you may even learn something new.

I have been waxing on a little about Edge of the Web, the Perth web conference and workshops (3 weeks to go), but there is another event on the evening of Edge of the Web - WebJam.

Webjam is a fun contest where 18-20 people step up and show of what they have been working on, all in a 3 minute presentation per person.

Now the main front man for Webjam is Lachlan Hardy. He is one of those people in the Web Industry that just seem to have boundless energy and motivation.  He has just come off the biggest WebJam ever, being Webjam8. But this isn’t enough the Webjam crew are looking to do in all again in Perth for Webjam9 on November 6, 7:30pm at the UWA Tavern (as I said earlier).

Last time Webjam came to Perth, was last year,  it was a run away success. This time let’s make it even bigger. Step it up and take it to the next level. No excuses, even if it is a Thursday night, this is the one major FREE event of the year. But remember you have to register.

Also if you want to get your name in front of a few hundred web geeks, this is great opportunity for sponsorship.

The other day I caught up with Lachlan and we chatted a little about things webjammy:

MWNB:

This is the second Webjam you have brought to Perth.   So what really is WebJam beyond 18 crazy geeks trying to win the audience’s love via their 3 minute presentations.

LH:

I’m probably the worst person to define it!

What is it to the people who pour into a bar for a big geeky party on the night? What is to the speakers who sweat and labour over a 3 minute presentation? What is it to you?

For me, Webjam is long weeks of stress and organisation (do we have speakers? a venue? equipment? can we pay for any of this?), followed by a short week of panic and organisation (what do you mean that isn’t ready?), followed by one big burst of awesomeness and energy. And the latter is what I hope others get from it.

I want people to walk out the door thinking about what they can build or design or create. I want Webjam highs that carry you out to make more cool stuff!

MWNB:

Talking of highs, now this is WebJam 9.   It just seems to be getting bigger and bigger.  What are the future plans for Webjam, world domination!?

LH:

I don’t want the individual nights to get any bigger. I want to keep the conversational, open mic, beat poet feel to it. We originally started it to provide a platform for the Australian web community to promote their innovations and inspire each other. That’s still our goal, but I feel like Webjam has grown beyond that in some ways.

I’m still surprised by the passion so many people have for Webjam. Anson Parker and I thought the first one in 2006 would be he and I tapdancing on stage by ourselves while a couple of our friends got drunk and booed, but we had 19 presenters rocking out in front of 194 attendees. It was amazing! Anson is no longer involved, but not much else has changed. We’re still working to put on a fun and inspiring night of hot webby goodness that shows off all the incredible talent we have here.

World domination is definitely on the cards (after all, the rest of world probably has some cool web stuff too!), we just have to work out how to fund that…

Sponsorship is hard. We’ve had some amazing offers, but we want to stay true to why we started this and that excludes us from many traditional sponsorship arrangements. If you know anybody who’s interested in something more unorthodox (but far more cool), send them my way!

MWNB:

I know personally the vibe and buzz from Webjam is just electric even more so when you are presenting.  Kay has given us Nick Cowie’s magical tips for presenters, but are there any from yourself?

LH:

It should be electric. It should be a gig, a party, a crazy night of inspirational adventure! It should be a rush!

One of the key features is that it’s fast fast fast. Presentations should come on and off in seconds. Speakers should dash onto stage like they’re already out of time. 3 minutes is longer than you think (especially if you practice), but it doesn’t feel very long at all when you’re up there. So, practice. A lot.

You can always pick the speakers who’ve practiced, they’re the ones having more fun. If you’re panicked and rushed, then that *can* be funny for us, but really it just means that we’re more likely to miss your message. You’re on stage to show us something you’ve done, something you’re proud of. Give us the best chance to recognise it, and you.

The other big thing is that nobody wants a 3 minute Powerpoint. Slideshows can work - Diana Mounter came second at Webjam8 with a hilarious fast-paced message with a slideshow - but demos rule supreme. That doesn’t mean you have to be a coder, but show us something. Run us through a site, or a feature, or a concept. Code something live (always risky!). Get audience participation (even riskier!).

Sales pitches don’t work and nobody likes them, but show everybody something cool in your site or product and that’s better than any sales pitch your marketing guy can come up with.

The last tip I always give the speakers before we let the crowds in the door is this: have fun, that’s what works!

MWNB:

Also someone tells me it maybe someone’s birthday on the day of Webjam 9, 6 November.

LH:

I should have known better than to trust Lisa with the mic at Webjam8! She dobbed me in before 350 folks who are unlikely to forget it. There’s an odd symmetry to it, though. Earlier this year, Lisa was in Perth on her birthday to speak at Ideas 4. And now I’ll be in Perth on my birthday for Edge of the Web and Webjam9. I’m turning 30, so I’ll tell you what, we’ll make sure it’s one hell of a party!

MWNB:

I’m sure Perth can arrange it’s usually kick arse party.

Last month Molly Holzschlag lead an interesting discussion on the divided state of the web standards community on A List Apart.  Now we all know this has been happening for a while, this fragmentation of the web standards community.

Molly is prompting people to get involve with their web standards group of their choice, in an effort bolster the community, and maybe reverse the trend.

Okay it’s a good idea in theory; but in reality, from a personal view I’m tired of the same thing time and time again.  Take for example the Web Standards Group mailing list (we don’t have a local WSG) I’m finding the constant rehashing of topics and questions and answers a bit pointless, to the point that I’ve just lost interest.

Other standards groups, via their mailing lists or forums, can be at times almost hostile to newcomers, or just not interested in new blood.   Frankly I just don’t have the time to be bothered trying to be heard in such an environment.

Elephant in the Room.

Partly I blame some of the strong personalities involved, particularly in the volunteer web standards communities such as WHATWG and WaSP.  Especially with the WHATWG I have found the dominance of any discussion by a solid clique core.  So much so that outsiders are not seen as being welcome at all.   This in itself alone does not help foster the extension of a community at a time when getting volunteers of any way shape or form are becoming hard and harder to come by  worldwide.

From what I have observed, people have also just altered and shifted their view points, true they are still thinking of web standards in a way, but in most cases the gleam has gone from the shiny prize of standards perfection.

What do you think, have we all just moved on, learnt it all  and have now moved on?

The need and desire to move forward with the latest new innovation in the browser development community has lead to the implementation of early W3C draft guidelines by various vendors, in what is gearing up for an escalation.

Bring on the Darkest Hour.

It is this type of pressure the pushes the web community forward as well. You see the slower things move, the more we want the shiny new design toys that the browser vendors are offering, as they are building the hearts and mind of their browsers.  It’s really in a way gearing up to a war, a browser war.  A time of chaos and confusion, of  custom tags and the like.   So maybe this is the twilight before the darkest web standards hour.  So be it, it’s all a cycle, the wheel will turn.

Maybe all this web standards and best practice is really just a waste of time.  After all what real benefits, do web standards  deliver for the general web user. Remember a site can be highly usable and accessible, but still be a web standards horror story.  So if the user experience is good, do web standards count, optimistically I would like to think, yes.   But realistically maybe that is a no.

Sorry Mols I think it’s not looking good.  What do you think, is it time to drop web standards?

With the financial world in extreme crisis and various government running around in what can only be described as blind panic, one would could be forgiven for joining the mass panic.   Granted that when the world economy does slide into recession that it is going to be tough generally.

However having been through three down turns I can give a few pointers that maybe helpful in these times of crisis. Particularly for people in Australia and New Zealand:

• Don’t Panic

  First off, stop and consider anything you are going to do with a long term view point. You know that share markets go up and down.  Remember the sun will come up tomorrow, you still have your health (well I hope you do) and you will still have the skills you had yesterday.  Yes sure this one is very severer, combined with the fact that we are no longer living in a world where there is a separate regional economies.   The world is now one large global economy.   The interesting aspect of all is that this could be the first recession of the hyperconnected age.  It will be interesting to see where people place the value of the web in household budget.

• Be Conservative

  Now you know that things are going to be tight.  Clients are going to be late in paying.  The cost of software, books and equipment is going to go up.   You know these are a given.  So it’s time to be a little more conservative.   Yeah that means cutting back a little on those geeky gadgets.  But trust me you may need to.   Also look at the software and hardware you are using, do you really need to move up to Adobe CS4 (for instance), maybe there is a cheaper alternative.    I know in the downturn in the early nineties I had a very close look at what software and hardware I was using and its cost.  Now one area you shouldn’t cut is education and professional development.  To do this will mean you find yourself behind the times when the recession lifts. So try and keep the conferences and networking going, even if you don’t have the latest phone.

• Last in First Out

  As a freelancer there is the temptation to go run and hide; taking up full time employment at the first sign of a recession.  If I where you I would very strongly consider the following points before you did this. When a firm fires someone they generally look at the people that have joined recently, mainly because these people are usually not fully integrated in the team yet and they have no real emotion attachment to that person, plus the payout is usually less.   The last person in would be you.   So just consider this unless you manage to grab a government position you may just be back where you started, but with no client base.

• Try Contracting

  If you are still thinking about bailing from freelancing then consider long term contracting. In some of the previous down turns I did from time to time take up a number of longer term contracts (1-2 years).   Now these are ideal if you can win them, as they give you a constant  cash flow.   The work maybe a little mundane, but if you are savvy you will leverage the quiet times to improve your skills or even branch into new areas.

• Consider Post Graduate Study

  Sometimes it’s a good idea if things are really going pear shaped, and you can afford it, to go back to full time study.   Maybe do a Masters or the like.  Sure this does have the problem of the University fees bill at the end of it all.  But you will have a shiny new post graduate qualification at the end of it all, just in time for when things are on the up and up.  The secret is to pick the right subject to work on that will maintain your skill set or better yet enhance it.  Traditionally the market is very conservative when it comes out of a recession, so they tend to look for the people with the bits of paper.

• Look Overseas

  This is very topical for  Australian and New Zealand.  Now if the exchange rate is  favourable for prospects in the UK and US, then you really should be considering looking for clients overseas as well.  Now I would also be only be considering working with teams made only of people from places with a comparative exchange rate.  So I would build the team locally to do jobs overseas.   Sure they will have a depressed market, but if your prices are half that of the local (overseas) freelancer you are bound to get some interest.

• Web Sites are Cheap

  Developing, design or realigning a web site is a cheap form of marketing.  When times get tough the bigger ticket items in terms of marketing budget tend to fall by the wayside.   But the web is in relative terms a low budget item, so in many cases it will remain.   Also traditionally in tough economic times big business does suffer.  But it is the medium to small business, because of their agile nature, is able to survive.  Improving their web service is often a good way for these businesses to get the jump on the big end of town.

• Get Tough

  As times get tough I would be researching any client or agency that comes to you to ensure that they have the money to pay.   If you are in the slightest bit suspect, I would be asking for 80%-90% up front. For the bigger jobs maybe a credit check is in order.   On the reverse side, cut your payment cycle down to say 14 days, this way people will stretch it to 30 days (back where it was).   I would also be very pig headed with late payers.  Ring them every day when it is late, don’t email them, ring them. Ask them when you are going to be paid.  If they say tomorrow, then tell them you will be ringing tomorrow if it hasn’t arrived. And do just that.  This works well if they have a separate accounts section, Also don’t talk to the person processing, take it to their management.  You get the gist, get tough it is your money.

• Freelancers are not Employees

  Speaking from experience, employees are expensive when the times are tough and they are just sitting around not earning you a dollar.  But freelancers on the other hand only work when you have a project and hence are a lot cheaper.  Plus they come with all the costs up front.   This is great for a business that is finding it a little tight.   So in some ways Freelancers are preferred in times of a recession as they are generally cheaper for the speculative ups and downs of a fluctuating marketplace.

• Australia is not the US

  Finally remember that Australia (well from my view) is not the US.   While our economy is  still part of the global share market and the rollercoaster that is associated with that.  From a private business and government view our economy is a lot more stable, and doing  very  well.   Yes times maybe be a little tough.   But we have the capacity and innovation to weather this better than any country in our region, if not the world. Let the US panic, we can just sit here with our beer be all chilled and relaxed.  We just have to think a little outside of the square.   But Isn’t that what we are good at.

So that’s a short list of things to consider, I’m sure you have a few things that you do when times are a tough as well, why not share them.

During the two conferences I attended recently, Web Directions South and OZ-IA there was a distinct theme in some the sessions on opening up the corporate knowledge based.

You know the score, you have bound to have heard this before.   Don’t lock the corporate information up, allow those statistics and figures, you are already presenting to the public to be readily accessed via some type of API.  Allow people to remix, mashup and represent the information.  The concept goes that it’s better to allow this via a controlled API then have people scrape and represent or misrepresent the information.  Hence you maintain control of your information using the API than the traditional scrape method.

Just to be clear I’m not talking of community building and customer relations in an online social environment, that’s a completely different story.

Now this is all well and good. The concept works for large corporates and government (at all levels).

Sure Not for Profits can be involved in this type of Open Data as well, spreading their various reports etc as base API, allowing better visualisation and mashups with their data by themselves or a third party.

Small Business?

But what of medium to small business.  Is this model of Open Data applicable to them as well.

Consider a small business, is there any information that can really be published outside of the sales catalogue that can be truly released to the public without damaging the longer term viability of the business.  Open Data seems in a way in direct conflict with the core of any small business’s operation.  You don’t really want to display and hand over your corporate data to your competitors do you.

So is the idea a waste of time for this segment of the business community.   Well no not really;  you don’t want to put all your information out there granted.  But you can take advantage of the information from other sources that have an open API and mashup that with say your product catalogue.

For example if you are selling or renting properties, Google maps is a good example of centralised visualisation point.  You display your properties on the Google maps, fine that bit is easy, we have all seen this.   Next you could also display the nearby bus stops, schools, pizza shops, local geo tagged photos, and so on.   Thinking about this example aren’t we just bringing the old GIS maps with their multiple layers of spacial informaiton to the web.

Stepping it up

But it doesn’t stop there, a cluey small business could leverage these open data sources with their APIs to mashup the data to present a new slant on existing information, now I’m not saying that this representation should in turn be made public, no far from it. But it will present a new way of looking at a target market for sure. The pivotal point here is the availability of the Open Data via an API.

So is this yet another way that small business can cheaply get the drop on the big corporates?

For the last few months I have noted on average across my clients sites that IE6 has now slipped to below 40%.   Okay this is just a magical number.   But for me it has great significance.   This is the tipping point  for an aging browser on the decline.  At this point it goes from the pixel perfect section on the browser compliance matrix to the section major resemblance.  This is the grey zone between perfection and the old fall back graceful degradation.

What does this mean. Well basically anything in IE6 will not be rendered exactly the same as in the other major browsers (IE7, Firefox, Safari*).   All the visuals will be there.   It’s just little things like minor visual features, layered pngs or some JavaScript functionality will just not be catered for.   Sure I’m still using progressive enhancement with a Hijax overlay to produce a graceful degradation.

Overall IE6 is just slipping away into the old browser bin.   You may say, but others have been doing this for a while.   Yes true, but from  a business realism view point I have had to wait until IE6 was well the truely on the downward spiral.  Sadly this has taken a while.

Interestingly I have been designing sites of late that are pushing the visual representation and functional ability of IE6 anyway.   So maybe subconsciously I have been making this move for a while.  This doesn’t mean I forgetting about IE6.  But it does mean that I’m not focusing on the finer visual representation of my designs in IE6.

It’s not that I hate IE6, well some days I do, it is the bane of my design existence, but it did bring some support for CSS1, DOM, iframes, improved XMLHttpRequest and some SMIL support.  Also remember IE6 was the quirks mode browser degrading the render to IE5.5.   IE6 was the sandbox for many a DHTML project in it’s day, and it served us well for the time.

But let’s remember it was released August 2001 after all it’s  28 internet years old, time for us to move on I think design wise.  Not that 28 is old… oh just forget the age thing and more on…

* - okay I know FireFox and Safari are not major browsers, but they are my design starting point so they stay, understand.

Day One - Sept 25

For another year the web industry from across Australia came together at the Sydney Convention Centre for Web Directions South 2008. Expectations where high could John and Maxine pull together another outstanding conference in the epic Web Directions series.

After a successful AWIA Port80 on the evening before where Clever Starfish, radharc, Free Wireless Australia,  and Saasu sponsored drinks, It was in a bleary eye state that we descended upon the Sydney Convention Centre. This year I had a mind to attend topics that I didn’t know about, and stretch myself.

Lynne G Johnson - Keynote

The keynote that starts a conference can often set the tone for the entire conference. I have been to conferences in the past where the first keynote basically blows you mind with amazing concepts and ideas. This allows the rest of the conference to build upon this talk. Now I didn’t know who Lynne G Johnson was will this conference, but still I trusted the organisers judgment and assumed it would be good.

It’s not that the talk wasn’t good, it was. I was just left with the feeling that maybe I was at the wrong conference as it seemed to be pitched a print media, corporate sector crowd, not the uber elite of the web industry. Considering the person ROI I have to make from each session, this one left me very worried.

A few suggests to Lynne, research your audience, If you are going to reference culture icons then try and find the equivalent of the country you’re speaking in. To assume we are “just like US” is a very arrogant move that just makes you appear a little silly. It’s easy to do you just have to chat with the conference organisers.

Dimitry Baranovskly - Web Vector Graphics

Now this session slot was a problem. To go see Dimitry, support my friend Kay Smoljak, or Derek Featherstone. Having attended Derek’s workshop earlier in the week (which was outstanding, hat tip to Derek) the decision was really between Dimitry and Kay. Dimitry won.

Dimitry gave us and introduction to vector graphics on the web moving onto the problems and compatibility of VML,  canvas and SVG. As always Dimitry was extremely knowledgeable on this topic and rounded the presentation off with an introduction to his framework Raphaël, The examples and implementation of Raphaël that he demonstrated had the audience wanting to see more and more. If you have not checked out this framework yet I suggest you do.

Tim Lucas and Pete Ottery - Developing for the iPhone

This dynamic duo of Tim and Pete made it very clear from the out set that we should be developing for the mobile phone in general and not specifically the iPhone. The talk discussed the problems of phone detection to a separate sites, opposed to a mobile optimised CSS. Overall it was really the presentation of several case studies, but it was very interesting to hear the problems they had an how they overcame them.  Well worth looking to.

Javascript Libraries

This panel on Javascript was presented as a shoot out of the major Javascript libraries, jQuery, YUI, prototype of pure Javascript. It was very interesting to see the different ways that people approached the same task and the resultant number of lines of code and total file footprint for each library.

The underlying message was that you have to pick your library for the task. However you have to bee aware that there will be trade offs with each project you do. And at times it maybe better to infact just use pure Javascript for the solution as Cameron Adams demonstrated time and time again.

Jeff Croft - Elegent Web Typography

Now I cut the Javascript Libraries session short to go see Jeff Croft.

I’m always a sucker for the good use of typography. Jeff started the session well, giving a traditional overview of typography from a print perspective.

Now I ‘m not really in agreement with Jeff’s approach to the subject. For instance so what that bullets and quotes should ride outside the paragraph margins. That was for the print industry, this is now the web, its a different media and hence shouldn’t some new rules apply.

The points he went trough where really just basic use of fonts on the web, grid layout and determination, paragraph rhythm, colour and contrast, limitation of typefaces, line heights, kerning, justification and font replacement .

For me personally there was nothing new in this talk, plus I found Jeff’s machine gun rapid fire delivery a little annoying.

But the real icing on the cake was Jeff’s suggestion that maybe we should be sticking with absolute sized fonts. I can tell you this was a red rag to a bull for most of the crowd, including myself as my twitter stream contests. We will see what Jeff has to say about absolute sized fonts when he is over 40 and his sight is starting to fade.

(Edit 29 Sept 20:00) to be fair to Jeff this was not his intent, as I discovered on reading other people’s reviews of the day. Guess this is the down side of a closed twitter feed.

August de los Reyes - Predicting the Past

This closing keynote for day one was a good overview of surface computing and the progression of interface development from today into the future.  It was a mixture of psychology, interface design and cognitive recognition, over all very slick.

There where several almost SciFi type presentations of new interfaces with lots of glowing line and Utopian environments.   And several Microsoft adverts, that frankly where a little hard to take.  August came to the edge of being a sell-out speaker slot and stepped back.  This one factor marred a good presentation.   If Microsoft allow the podcast/slidedeck to be published look out for it.

Day Two - Sept 26

After an average day on Thursday and three social events that night, Web Directions Reception, the ever rockin’ WebJam 8 and the AussieTUB meetup it was as expected a very slow start.  Much needed Cafe Stories bacon and egg with extra pepper roll was required to kick start it all!

I was hoping that this day would pick up a little in terms of speaker content.

Jeffrey Veen - Designing out way Through Data

I have been wanting to see Jeffrey Veen speak for a while, and he didn’t disappoint at all.  Taking the movement of the static into the dynamic, from the flat to the visualised. Jeff point out we need to get back to giving the users the tools to build the data into information and tell their story. To leverage the visualisation of the data. To take it beyond the static into the visual.

It comes down to remembering to enforce the core function, and bring the story together, without the story the data is just data.

This presentation was inspirational, I feel it should have opened day one.  Go find the slides and podcast if you missed it.

Jina Bolton - Creating Sexy Style Sheets

Jina stepped up and presented well.  This was a hard call as she can’t talk about her work at Apple, and was basically restricted to her own personal work or generalist topics on CSS.  That said she did present a good grounding in CSS method and techniques with a few glances into CSS3, with some very sexy design visualisation of the output.

From a personal view there was very little in this presentation that I didn’t already know.    Was it a refresher, well no it wasn’t even that.  Good presentation, just not for me at all.

Michael ™ Smith - HTML5

Michael ™ Smith  ran us through why HTML5 is taking so long, but did point out some of the nicer improvement and streamlining of the proposed spec.   There were a lot of things hinted at and not said in this presentation on the politics of the HTML5 working group.  Overall it was a good journey through the jungle of the HTML5 specification.  Even had a few bits I had forgotten.

Douglas Crockford - Ajax Security

This was another conflict session for me as I also wanted to see Ruth Ellison on Integrated Accessibility into Design. But as I was trying to stretch my knowledge and not just confirm it Douglas won out.

Okay this was a dry discussion, but I expect that, it’s not really a sexy topic is it.   If you where really listening to this it as a very scary presentation.  We have a Javascript standard in place that is buggy and insecure at best.  And it has been that way off and on for years.   The only real way forward that Douglas suggested was another browser war to bring on the innovation.

Mark Pesce - This, that and the other Thing

Mark Pesce returns for another awesome closing keynote.  It’s a hard think this one, Mark has presented some amazng keynotes at Web Directions in the past.  And this one was no exception. It did review the others a little, and then step up with some good visualisation and the use of the mob in the room out doing Mark mid speech via the back channel.  This was classic.   Mark build upon his previous messages we now have the mob but the mob needs now to organise into a community and take charge, lead our destiny.  Sadly this will be Mark’s last keynote for Web Directions South for a while.

Overall

Venue, Food and the lot

This very good, in fact the food this year was outstanding, lots of choices with a very well thought out menu.

The coffee was a little better than previous years, it was drinkable. There were various soft drinks available as well at lunch, however not much of a sugarless range, point to note for next year.  One minor point the water jugs where all taken away to be refilled after the major breaks leaving attendees with no water.

The Sydney Convention Centre suffers from being a bunker of steel and concrete and hence blocks most wifi and 3G signals. But this wasn’t overall too bad as the wifi in the breakout areas was outstanding with the Meraki mesh network, thanks to Free Wireless Australia.

Final Word

Now I don’t consider myself to really be an uber web geek. Sure I’m competent in some areas, but overall I feel I still have a way to go, and would expect that many of the sessions at Web Directions would have made me think and stretched me.

This year it just didn’t happen. In fact I found just under half the sessions to be lack lust. This has made me question if attending Web Directions every year is really worth while. Maybe I have reached the stage that I’m approaching the knowledge of the people on the stage, and Web Directions South is no longer catering for me as an audience.

Or maybe what is needed is a simple indicator on the program as to the level of knowledge required by the audience for any given presentation.  So I know if the presentation is pitched at a basic level not to attend.

Overall what did I think of the conference.  Some of it was outstanding, with the usual Web Directions flare of pointing us to the new directions on the web.  It just seemed a few speakers let the mix down.

Still hat tip to John and Maxine for bringing the web tribe together for another year.

So ends ten days of web geekery.  Next stop, five weeks from now we do it all again for Edge of the Web.

So on with the summary of the second day for OZIA 2008. Okay this is a few days late, but better late than never, eh. Day two sees the return of three minute massages, juice bar, real coffee and great speakers after the official and alternative (late) dinners. As with day one I’m not going to summarise it all, but just go over  few highlights I had.

Website to Webapp – designing for workflow - Shane Morris

Shane Morris looked at the problem of using tools and techniques developed for the old school web of the document view to the newer application based web site.  And how they just don’t apply anymore and how there are alternatives like screen flow (in various forms) and functional mapping techniques could be used instead.

How many seconds does it take to order a burrito? - Zafer Bilda

This was an incredibility interesting talk on the application of Information Architecture techniques onto the improvement of sales and procedures for a small food chain.  It was especially enlightening to see so many user research and navigation tools being used in what is traditionally a marketing area.

Contextual Enquiries – the who, how, why, and when - Lisa Herrod

Despite some minor technical issues, Lisa Herrod delivery a  good presentation on contextual enquiries.   It was really just an overview of some of the pain points and ways around them for people wanting to move into this area of contextual research.    I found myself agreeing with many of the points she was making.  Of particular importance was the classic do’s and don’ts.  This will be one talk to rewatch on the video.

The Pleasure and Pain of UX freestylin’ - Donna Spencer, Gary Barber

I have no idea what this session was like, as I was presenting it, feedback is always welcome.

If you missed, maybe the slide deck will help, yes it does contain ‘that’ slide.  Hopefully the podcast and video will follow.  Sorry no transcript at this point in time.