Infinite Web Design

I normally avoid topics unrelated to web design and usability on this blog. However, I think this is worth pointing out and commenting on publicly. The following images are from a document that can be found at the ACLU website at http://www.aclu.org/nsl/gagorder/acluLetter_051404.pdf.

Continue reading Redacting for Dummies

In reading over Paul Scrivens’ post at the 9rules Network I realized I had forgotten to include him in the list of links on my sidebar. This is an unfortunate oversight on my part. He has been a tireless advocate of good design and I have learned a great deal and enjoyed myself immensely reading the discussions he has led on his network of sites. I hope that you will visit them and see for yourself the fine work he has been doing.

Just a note, via Forever Geek, you can get 25 free prints of digital photos from Target until 8/22/04. Just print out the image below, cut it out and take it to Target with your digital files.

The following is a lengthy and extremely well written piece, actually a transcript of a talk given in Redmond, on Digital Rights Management (DRM) by Cory Doctorow of the EFF. It is available at http://craphound.com/msftdrm.txt.

Microsoft Research DRM talk
Cory Doctorow
cory@eff.org
June 17, 2004

Greetings fellow pirates! Arrrrr!

I’m here today to talk to you about copyright, technology and DRM, I work for the Electronic Frontier Foundation on copyright stuff (mostly), and I live in London. I’m not a lawyer — I’m a kind of mouthpiece/activist type, though occasionally they shave me and stuff me into my Bar Mitzvah suit and send me to a standards body or the UN to stir up trouble. I spend about three weeks a month on the road doing completely weird stuff like going to Microsoft to talk about DRM.

I lead a double life: I’m also a science fiction writer. That means I’ve got a dog in this fight, because I’ve been dreaming of making my living from writing since I was 12 years old. Admittedly, my IP-based biz isn’t as big as yours, but I guarantee you that it’s every bit as important to me as yours is to you.

Here’s what I’m here to convince you of:

1. That DRM systems don’t work

2. That DRM systems are bad for society

3. That DRM systems are bad for business

4. That DRM systems are bad for artists

5. That DRM is a bad business-move for MSFT

It’s a big brief, this talk. Microsoft has sunk a lot of capital into DRM systems, and spent a lot of time sending folks like Martha and Brian and Peter around to various smoke-filled rooms to make sure that Microsoft DRM finds a hospitable home in the future world. Companies like Microsoft steer like old Buicks, and this issue has a lot of forward momentum that will be hard to soak up without driving the engine block back into the driver’s compartment. At best I think that Microsoft might convert some of that momentum on DRM into angular momentum, and in so doing, save all our asses.

Let’s dive into it.
Continue reading Microsoft Research DRM Talk

The Detroit Pistons are the 2004 NBA Champions. They destroyed the L.A. Lakers in 5 games. And through it all they did it the “right way”. But what is the “right way” and what should it mean to you?

Doing things the right way means always working hard from start to finish. This means that you show up early and stay late and in between you never coast or give any less than your best effort at each moment.

Doing things the right way means being unselfish and being a team player. Share the recognition, revel in the accomplishments of your teammates, and work with others to accomplish your goals. A unselfish, dedicated group can accomplish great things when they work together.

Doing things the right way means not taking shortcuts toward your goal. Don’t settle for good enough, even if it will get you by. Make the extra effort and take the time to do things the best way you can each and every time, even if nobody else seems to care.

The Pistons showed us what doing things the right way can bring you, even when nobody else recognizes your hard work and dedication it can bring you great success and happiness in the end. This is true in basketball and it is true in the rest of our lives as well. Whatever it is you choose to do in life, take pride in your efforts and always do things the “right way”.

So you’re being considered by a potential client. You’ve spoken briefly, interest has been expressed by both parties, and now it is time to figure out what it is you will be doing for them. What is the best way to get acquainted with this unfamiliar client? A Client Survey!

What is a Client Survey you may ask? Or perhaps you know and you are instead asking why you would bother with something so formal rather than just sitting down and talking for an hour or two. There are a number of reasons, mostly related to efficiency and time. Before we get into that, the Client Survey is a list of questions in that you can send to a client for them to answer at the start of a project. I have found that it is best to give them the questions with a couple of days to go over them before one of your first meetings and then to go over the questions in detail with them at the meeting.

Creating a formal Client Survey that you can send over to a client before your big meeting lets them prepare for you. Most of your clients will have little knowledge of the web design business and they wont be able to effectively prepare for this early meeting with you. By sending them a list of questions you can help them start to dig up the information you need from them.

However, this isn’t just about gathering information. There are some more subtle things that happen when you send a well crafted survey to a client. First off, you can shape how they think about the project based on the questions you ask. If you spend a lot of time focusing in on their favorite colors and whether they want you to emulate that cool ‘Aqua’ look then they will consider that to be very important to the site. However, if you ask them questions about what their business goals for the site are, if the sections of the site are clearly labeled for visitors, and what accessibility initiatives they have for disabled visitors they will start the project with these issues at the forefront of their thinking about the site.

This means that before you have met with the client, before you have inked the contract, you can already start turning them into a ‘good client’ who will consider things like Web Standards, usability, and accessibility to be as important as you know they are. Even if they don’t know what these things are, including them in the survey gives you a great opening to explain what they are and why they should be important to the client.

Having a well crafted Client Survey also shows the client that you know what you are talking about (or, conversely, may reveal that you are full of it). The questions you ask can highlight areas where you can really shine and be of value to the client. Take advantage of that by making sure that things you are very good at get a few questions dedicated to them. Are you a whiz at logos? Ask about their logo. Can you churn out SQL and PHP like the Energizer Bunny? Ask about databases and dynamic content.

Your survey should be unique to your company and your offerings. Remember that you may encounter clients who need things you can’t or won’t do and you can use the Client Survey to discover if these will come up in the project. Recognize these potential problem areas and be honest about them with yourself and your clients.

I’ve updated the list of Blogs I Like in the sidebar using Collison’s fine tickmark technique to help you pick out which ones you still haven’t visited. I want to acknowledge his ingenuity and encourage you to visit the sites I’ve linked to. These are sites where I’ve consistently found great insights, great design, and an openness and willingness to share ideas and knowledge about good design.

One of my goals in creating this weblog and this site is to educate people about web standards, usability, and good design. I am not the only person who is dedicated to these ideas and I think that it is important to get a variety of perspectives on these issues. Visit these sites and read what they have to say with and open and critical mind. Some of them may be viewed as my ‘competition’, but I prefer to view them as peers who share the my passion for good design. None of what we talk about is should be secreted away, the more people who know about, understand, and apply the techniques we are discussing the better off everyone will be.

I’ve enabled MT-Blacklist to deal with a rash of comment spam I’ve been seeing here of late. Hopefully this will cut down on links to porn sites and online casinos in the comments… if you have any problems with getting legit comments through just follow the contact link at the top of the page and let me know. Thanks to Jay Allen for the fine work on this plug-in.

I will spending the next three days at Menlo Innovations High Tech Anthropology 101 course. It covers a great deal of information related to gathering information about users and using it in product and system development. It covers information modeling using UML, which is relatively new for me, and a variety of ways to apply some HCI and usability techniques in a corporate development setting. From what I’ve seen of Menlo this should be well worth the time. I’ll post more on this soon to talk about what I’ve learned, my thoughts on Menlo, and anything else I take away from the experience.

Due to a problem with an IP configuration my site went down. I noticed this and e-mailed tech support at 1am. At 1:07am it was fixed and the site was back up with an apology. Now that is some fine service courtesy of Rick B. and the fine folks at Hostcove.