Answering “Who Are You?” on Nonprofit Websites [aside]
A couple recent projects have highlighted the need to focus on impact and programming when explaining to website visitors what exactly you do. Here’s what I’m thinking.
Blog
Summary & Reactions to Digital Inclusion Summit 2013
I took a day off of work to attend the 2013 Digital Inclusion Summit in Seattle. It was a day well spent full of interesting people and thoughtful conversations.
New Sites and Plugin Updates
I did a bad thing and didn’t post a 2013 kickoff blog post despite intending to. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been building sites and plugins. Check out these new fun webthings, including one new addition to my online portfolio.
External Links: Accessibilty and Control [link]
I know people have their reasons for wanting to make links open in new windows, but there are real problems with that. Here’s a link where someone does a great job explaining why we should stop.
Fake Follow: February 2013
It’s the first of the month again, so that means it’s time to see what trouble I’ve been causing on Twitter!
Contextual Clues for Web Writing [aside]
Some basic thoughts about the importance of reading comments. The rationale for doing so comes straight out of your 7th grade reading class.
The Alt Text Decision Tree [link]
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but that doesn’t mean text alternatives should be that long! But how do you know what’s right? This decision tree is a good place to start.
Rethinking the WordPress Admin Menu
I use WordPress a lot, and so I have strong opinions about it. I’ve watched people do amazing things with it and watched people struggle to add a single menu item to their site. So here’s me putting out an idea of how to improve a part of WordPress. What do you think?
Quick Note to Email Subscribers (re: Growing Pains) [status]
A brief programming note and apology for the blog’s email subscribers.
Fake Follow: January 2013
The first of my monthly tweet roundups for those who don’t follow me on Twitter. I’ll be posting bits of advice, interesting links, and retweets of some of the greatest Tweet-ers of our time.
Intuitive Means Familiar
Think about it. There’s nothing “intuitive” about using a mouse. It’s a piece of plastic that you move around on a flat horizontal surface to effect the position of this tiny arrow on a vertical screen. And yet we use “intuitive” to describe technology all the time. Why is that and what can we do instead?
Text Formatting Don’ts
The way a person formats text is to communicate additional information. “This phrase is a section heading.” “This word is more important than all the others.” When text formatting gets out of control, that information is obscured and a host of other problems arise.
What to do, when you see “-2”
Because there are too many WordPress tips posts out there already, I tackled today’s tip—How do I get rid of the “-2” at the end of a post slug (e.g. “example.org/about-us-2/”)—in verse. I apologize in advance.
Client Intake, Project Planning, and Wait
Frank Partnoy’s book, Wait, has me thinking about project management. It discusses how—across many disciplines—experts are careful in collecting enough information to make good decisions before quickly relying on past experience to succeed at whatever their goal may be. So this suggests that projects start slow and then end fast.
WordPress User Guide To Accessibility [link]
When it comes to entering accessible content, the skills required are rather simple, but many people find it hard to remember to do all of them. Here’s a great little article reminding people what those skills are. My favorite part: a simple test to see if your site is accessible.
Priority: An Allegory
A first for this blog. A fictional tale of a wayward museum commissioner who has lots to tell us about being selective and the importance of a well-organized website…err…museum.