As a front-end designer (*see below), I spend my time concentrating on appearance and how it best cooperates with functionality. As anyone worth their design salt will tell you, there are two challenges faced by front-end web designers. The first, and ultimate challenge, in my opinion, is the ability to design with white space representing the primary plane. In truth, the anchorless realities of white space make it one of the most difficult web design mediums to work with. As Dale has often said - “less is more, but less is also more difficult”. It’s a maxim with which I totally agree and, besides the fact that I am drawn to clean layouts, have become wholly enamored with the repeated challenge of designing white space based sites.

One factor to take into consideration regarding white space designs is that not all websites are geared towards them and that site identity should be taken into consideration. I have found, over the years, that websites that are text content heavy tend to benefit more from the implementation of white space designs, which would be why most major news sites, for the most part, employ them.

White space designs also offer other challenges, the most difficult of which is that any addition to them is usually very noticeable, making the structure of their initial design platform crucial with regards to the addition of a variety of content - specifically images, hyperlinks, and so forth.

The second challenge is content clutter. As web pages have become more diversified and complex, it is not uncommon to encounter pages that are rammed full of content that, while resourceful, is presented in an entirely confusing fashion. While a specific website might be an unbelievable web resource, if its layout is choked to death by confused content it will only detract from the ability of visitors to quickly and enjoyably explore it. That’s not to say that the diversity of content isn’t important, just that when it comes to how it’s presented there are ways to go about it that don’t automatically confuse visitors and, ultimately, turn them off visiting a site.

Dale and I have repeatedly dealt with this issue in the past given the volume of content that this website has and have struggled with how best to simplify it so that it remains inviting while still providing the ability for visitors to access its depth of content. In truth, it is a process that consumes us on a weekly basis, even though we do not implement those ideas that we frequently discuss. Today we are currently in the midst of implementing new changes that will further help to address a variety of accessibility issue, adding a simple yet comprehensive drop down menu for every header link, while at the same time generalizing them and thus reducing their number, and a more accessible and powerful search feature.

So what do I mean by confusion? Well, not to pick on a specific website, especially being that I find it a fantastic resource, Smashing Magazine provides a good example. Below is a screenshot of the Smashing Magazine website. While a clear and concise top menu is employed, the layout of the site’s content is confusing and, in my opinion, detracts from the desire of visitors to explore what it has to offer. Adverts consume the top of the site’s sidebar, detracting from the list of resources presented below them. While I understand that revenues generated by adverts are important for various sites, their dominance of a design often convolutes the website’s initial impact with regards to content.

Search Utilization

Most websites offer a dedicated search feature that, depending on its parameters, will produce in-depth results. Ironically, site based searches are commonly underused, something that I have never understood.

When it comes to website content, especially with regards to blogs, dedicated site search features are invaluable and far more affective when searching for specific content – even more so than archive features given that most sites employ dynamic categorization methods that are automatically included in dedicated site searches. That said; the dedicated site search is an invaluable tool and should be easily accessible.

As I mentioned a little earlier in this post, we are currently implementing a new search feature that will be far more predominant on the site. But the issue of content clutter can also not be overlooked when it comes to how search results are presented and how they form the beginning of the informational chain that will ultimately lead site visitors to the content that they are seeking in a quick and clutter-free way.

Here again is a screen shot from Smashing Magazine that shows how its search results are displayed. The site employs an embedded Google Search, which isn’t uncommon as many sites use it to increase their standings in broader Google searches with regards to various topics that relate to them. My focus is on how the results are ultimately displayed with regards to clarity and ease of usability…

Notice how the search result text is cut off by the sidebar, as indicated by the red arrow. Also notice that the search results are confusingly preceded by the inclusion of adverts as well.

Hey! It’s My Day Off!

Anyway, back to enjoying my day off. We’ll be working on implementing the changes I mentioned earlier this evening, and, over the next few days, will make sure to post an entry outlining all of them.

According to the BBC, it seems that some rather interesting organizations have been caught with their hand in the Wikipedia editing cookie jar. Among them the Central Intelligence Agency, at which an employee is believed to have edited the page of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, adding Wahhhhhhh! in front of a section that details Ahmadinejad’s plans for his Presidency. CIA employees have also altered the pages of former CIA director Porter Gross and talk show host Oprah Winfrey, according to Wikipedia Scanner.

Other finds of interest include the Vatican’s editing of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams’ page as well as the editing of Rush Limbaugh’s page by the Democratic Party.

Of them all, the two most serious occurrences had to do with the editing of Gerry Adams’ page by the Vatican and the editing of a page by an employee at Diebold, who supplied the electronic voting machines used in the 2000 US Presidential election…

“The site also indicates that Vatican computers were used to remove content from a page about the leader of the Irish republican party Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams.

The edit removed links to newspaper stories written in 2006 that alleged that Mr Adams’ fingerprints and handprints were found on a car used during a double murder in 1971.

The section, titled “Fresh murder question raised” is no longer available through the online encyclopaedia.”

[…]

“Wikipedia Scanner also points the finger at commercial organisations that have modified entries about the pages.

One in particular is Diebold, the company that supplied electronic voting machines for the controversial US election in 2000.

In October 2005, a person using a Diebold computer removed paragraphs about Walden O’Dell, chief executive of the company, which revealed that he had been “a top fund-raiser” for George Bush.

A month later, other paragraphs and links to stories about the alleged rigging of the 2000 election were also removed.

The paragraphs and links have since been reinstated.

Diebold officials have not responded to requests by the BBC for information about the changes.”

See, this is why information printed on something tangible is still handy to have around.

There were a few interesting questions put to the Democratic candidates during the CNN - YouTube debates last night. Here are two of my favourites…

Updated: We’re still working on resolving the ‘edit comment’ issues. We will post here when they’ve been resolved.

First up: the Community IM

Recently the Messenger experienced a brief lapse of half-workingness. Spells have been cast, and all is sunny and warm again.

Corrections, Changes, Pesticide Use

The ‘Previous’ and ‘Next’ links at the footer of the main, category, search, archive and single post pages has been swapped; it is now semantically previous on the left and next on the right. Duh.

The main menu links have been moved around somewhat. Make no mistake, it wasn’t for any other reason than to try and trick you into visiting a different page than usual. We know it’s difficult without a sidebar.

Seriously though, we’ve added a link to Virb, which could be described as a more user friendly, better looking MySpace. Check it out.

The bug where Safari users would see odd characters using the Webstreams has been fixed.

The Discography page has had a slight facelift. Albums now load inline on the discography page, and the navigation for each album has been simplified. Expect more updates moving towards the release of Hospital Music.

Various bugs and style fixes for Internet Explorer 6/7 users.

Quote It Up

A feature unrequested but I’m sure will be welcome is the new quoting feature. Available in the forums, the quote has now arrived for the blog.

On individual post pages, registered, logged in users now have the ability to both easily quote article text, and each other’s comments. Post content can be quoted by selecting text with your mouse and then choosing the ‘Quote Text’ link. Comments can be quoted by simply clicking the ‘Quote Comment’ link at the bottom of the comment you’d like to quote.

For comments, both the author and the comment will be quoted automatically, and the quote formatted with indentation and blockquote styling. Quotes can contain nested batches of several quotes quoting each other madly.

Here’s a short example and explanation of use for posts:

Quote this short block of text by selecting it with your mouse cursor. Next, click the ‘Quote Text’ link in the middle between the ‘Comments #’ and ‘Comments RSS’ links at the post bottom of this entry. Go ahead and try it. Don’t be scared.

And for comments:

See my first comment below? Click the ‘Quote Comment’ link. Presto! Now write your reply below the inserted text and publish. Ain’t it fancy?

+ Plus - Minus

Additionally, two small boxes placed at the right bottom of the comment box now allow you to increase/decrease the textarea by fixed widths. They only work once each, so don’t go trying to make the web’s longest textarea for shits and giggles.

Available for download now is an RSS Widget for Mac OS X users. The widget will display the main matthewgood.org RSS feed in widget form on your dashboard, with customizable article length options.

Further development and more advanced features are planned for the widget, which will be available to registered users of matthewgood.org, and will be located in the community section of the website.

The current 1.0 version is in .zip format and is available to all. You can download it by clicking on the image.

* If the download previously failed for you, it is working now
** Please send any bug reports to help@matthewgood.org
*** Did you really think I would even consider a sidebar, let alone flashy crap and popup porn?

John Bollwitt sent me a link to a recent BBC article entitled Web 2.0 ‘neglecting good design’, and I have to say – I couldn’t agree with Jakob Neilsen more…

“Describing Web 2.0 as the “latest fashion”, Mr Nielsen said many sites paying attention to it were neglecting some of the principles of good design and usability established over the last decade.

Good practices include making a site easy to use, good search tools, the use of text free of jargon, usability testing and a consideration of design even before the first line of code is written.

Sadly, said Mr Nielsen, the rush to embrace Web 2.0 technology meant that many firms were turning their back on the basics.

“They should get the basics right first,” he said. “Sadly most websites do not have those primary things right.”

[…]

“Most people just want to get in, get it and get out,” said Mr Nielsen. “For them the web is not a goal in itself. It is a tool.”

Web firms rushing to serve the small, committed minority might find they make a site far less useful to the vast majority who come to a site for a specific purpose.”

Those last two statements pretty much sum up a lot of the thinking prevalent here in Vancouver, that’s for certain. This is, by all means, a town in which exploiting open source platforms and applications for the benefit of personal gain is rampant, just as I’m sure it is elsewhere.

Two new pages have been added to the website, the first of which is the Quotes page. On it you’ll find a short list of selected quotations by Matthew. The quotes page will be developed further, with additional author quotes as well.

Webstreams

On the Webstreams page you’ll find two blocks- ‘LifeStream’ and ‘Blogstream’.

Lifestream is a collection of Matthew’s web activity, currently including his blog entries, Flickr photos, and Del.icio.us links. Sorted chronologically, the LifeStream can be used to: look back several days at the posts matthew has made; see the ‘bibliography’ of links he’s bookmarked prior to posting in-depth articles; and most of all, catch something you might have missed otherwise.

Blogstream is more of a Community feature. It includes the latest 10 posts from each author, and also shows all posts in the Community Forums made in the last week or so. In order to use the links to forum posts, you must be logged in as the Community forum is currently for registered users of matthewgood.org only.

Webstreams is a new feature which we hope will serve many purposes.

Known Issues
- Safari users: some posts titles show odd characters
- Opera users: dates are displayed above the timeline

Refinement will be ongoing, so if you are having a significant error or issue please let us know about it here. your input always helps.

Both new pages are accompanied by a blue star in the menu links above.

Updated: 2 new videos are playing in the Community video player- Avalanche Slideshow, originally found on the In A Coma deluxe edition, and In A World Called Catastrophe.

Next, Comment Gravatars. Currently used in the Community forum, ‘Gravatars‘ are user pictures which help everyone identify you. You can create your own Gravatar for free here. When you create your account and upload your image, a short while later it will show on your blog comments and in the forums here, and everywhere else on the web where Gravatars are used.

Remember, Gravatars are associated with your e-mail address, so make sure to use the same one you’ve used to register at matthewgood.org.

If you’ve entered a webpage in your matthewgood.org account details, your gravtar will link to your webpage on blog comments.

*For those currently with a Gravatar, yours will now be shown on post comments, you needn’t make any changes for this to occur.

Desktops

3 new desktops have been added to the Community page, under ‘Club Extras’. Select Desktops from the Extras list and you’ll reveal both the three previous desktops and the newly added ones.

Featured, Latest

And lastly, we’ve added a ‘featured’ and ‘latest’ post tab on the blog’s main page. The blue tab ‘featured’ denotes those posts which warrant continued presence for various reasons beyond the originally posted date(s).

The orange tab ‘latest’ denotes the most recent post, and previous posts chronologically follow below it.

*Note: Some posts may take an extra few seconds to load over the next few days as everyone’s Gravatars are collected and stored.