Big Playah Usability Oops

This excellent article addresses the Top 10 Usability Blunders of the Big Players. My comments: 1. No search function – Though a site should be designed so that a visitor doesn’t have to resort to search, it should have a search function available. There is always someone looking for that lesser obvious something. 2. Massive … Read more

Standard Wars

Lots of fun happening over at Mike Davidson’s place. Mike who? He’s just the guy who manages a little site called ESPN. He shares his opinion on validation and many follow with their own in the comments. Amazingly enough, no spam in the comments. Dave of Mezzoblue responds with his perspective. Too simple? Maybe. Maybe … Read more

Corporate Blogging

Nick Wreden’s 10 Rules for Corporate Blogs and Wikis points to Blogging in Corporate America, which provides a download of Michael Angeles’ presentation on using weblogs on the intranet and how to make them useful for knowledge management. It also includes a brief history of Web publishing. I believe my team would benefit greatly from … Read more

Purple Haze

My daughter got a telescope for her birthday from her grandparents two years ago. Paul and I may forget things in the midst of the family craziness, but he manages to remember and follow through on astronomical-related events. Last night’s sighting is the most memorable as we got a threefer. Spent a bit of time … Read more

Processes in Web Design

The Importance of Process in Web Design is a well-written article about the importance of processes even in a Web design shop. I’ve worked as a process analyst for the last seven years or so and have seen how processes are a boon… and a burden. Process teams can’t alone make the process work for … Read more

Quiet Exit

Link rot is nothing new as sites get redesigned, the site can’t fix links from other sites to its pages. Sites created during the hot dotcom times are littering the Internet as they’ve become dead Web sites. Sites are abandoned for various reasons. For instance, my b-day blog ended shortly after my son’s birth. It … Read more

Webnouveau

What happened to Webnouveau (webnouveau.net), the list of 800 CSS tableless Web sites? I didn’t see any announcements about it going down, but it has been replaced and and the domain bought by someone else. Update: Thanks to Jenett for getting the site’s creator name. The individual’s name is Donimo Shriver. Update #2: I’ve put … Read more

meryl.net Turns 3

Three years ago, I gave a forgettable URL name a more meaningful and shorter one. It started in 1993 with dgs.dgsys.com/~mevans, then it became rampages.onramp.net/~meryl. Couldn’t come up with cool name like many of you have. For once, I appreciated having an uncommon name even though no one can spell it or prounce it right … Read more

Five-Year Worry Test

I don’t know how, but one of my mom’s famous quotes is circulating in a mailing list. She does use the computer and emails, but she is not an Internet surfer except to check out things that her children suggest. This quote, by far, stands out the most of all of her Momisms. Growing up … Read more

StickyMinds on a Fable

Shame on me for not sharing this little secret with you much earlier. StickyMinds from STQE Publications is a resource for everything related to building better software. Here are tidbits from the latest issue: Reflections on “A Fable” is a follow up to last year’s “A Fable.” Parents will understand the similarities between getting a … Read more