templatedata

IE6 patronage declines

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:06:14 +1100

I was having a look at our corporate website statistics and thought I would share some numbers.

The percentage of website visitors who use Internet Explorer 6 is now 27.7%. If we exclude internal University traffic then this number drops to 23.2%. This is good news for web developers who have for a long time suffered from the headache of having to code for a browser with such poor standards compliance.

It's a bit 'old news' for those on the bleeding edge of web technology but Microsoft has released the second beta of Internet Explorer 8.

Text based websites can look good too

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:27:31 +1100

The Seed Conference website is a beautiful example of the use of typography on the web. Proof that you don't need images to make a website look good.

Quick tips: Forms

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:22:01 +1100

Here is a few quick tips on designing HTML forms.

Use the tag to name your fields - this makes your code more semantic and also makes forms easier to fill out (e.g. browsers often process a click on a label associated with a radio button as a click on the radio button)
Use different input field types when appropriate e.g. radio buttons, drop-downs, text areas etc
Place field labels above the related field and left align them - eye tracking studies have found that using labels above their related input field allow users to capture the field and label in the same eye movement
Indicate required fields and special input requirements. The de facto standard for indicating required fields is to place a red asterisk (*). Also try and alert the users of errors in their input before they submit the form (can be achieved via JavaScript). However do also build input validation into your server side form processor just incase the user doesn't have JavaScript turned on
Use helpers - use javascript to help the user to enter certain types of data. For example you can use a JavaScript date picker/calendar to help a user enter a date, but be careful to allow more advanced users to enter these values manually.

More:

CSS Tricks - Label Placement on Forms

Usability testing monkey style

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 13:20:41 +1100

In an effort to try and balance out this blog a bit away from all the posts, I though I might post about some usability testing software DPM has been using as part of our interim review of the University's corporate site. The app is called Silverback, runs on Macs (sorry Windows guys) and cost about $50.

Silverback helps you track how users use your website by recording what they on screen as well as using the built in web camera and microphone found in most Macs to capture facial expressions, the direction the user is looking and spoken comments. Admittedly it's not quite as advanced as (very expensive) eye tracking software/equipment but for $50 who is complaining.

Also for fans of easter eggs have a go at resizing your browser window and see what happens to the vines at the top of Silverback's website.

Browser wars not as fun to watch as Star Wars

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:12:31 +1100

Those renegade funsters at Google today released their own web browser called Google Chrome. You can read all about it it on their site so I won't go into to much, but I do want to mention two things.

The Chrome rendering engine is based on WebKit, the same rendering engine in Apple's Safari browser so theoretically web developers should not worry to much about coding for another browser.
It's fast! In my limited testing viewing our beloved Uni site, Sydney Morning Herald and YouTube, it loaded pages extremely quickly.

Google Street View now in Australia

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:23:30 +1100

View Larger Map

Google has launched Google Maps Street View in Australia. The amount of time and resources this would have taken to create boggles the mind.

The 10 Commandments of Web Design

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:43:18 +1100

Perhaps unusual contenders in the world of web design, Business Week have handed down their 10 Commandments of Web Design. Generally they provide some good advice but I can't quite believe the put "Thou shalt not overuse glassy reflections" (position 4) above "Thou shalt make content king" (position 10).

Flash content now searchable

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:08:44 +1100

For a long time one of the big problems with the use of Flash in websites was that search engines could not 'craw' Flash files. Well the good news is that Google have developed an algorithm that allows them to index textual content in Flash files. Heres hoping other search engines develop this ability as well.

Better browsing - Mozzilla style

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 22:54:22 +1100

The clever folks at Mozillia recently released the next major version of their Firefox Internet browser. Firefox 3 has some cool new features like:

Improved performance
Security & privacy with anti-malware and anti-phishing features
Platform-native look & feel
Improved compliance with web standards

Go on download it! I dare you ;)

If your a web techie you may also be interested in finding out more info about Firefox 3 for web developers.

Cuil - World biggest search engine

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 22:50:58 +1100

I thought I would celebrate my first blog post by letting our loyal templatedata readers know about a new search engine called Cuil. Pronunced 'cool', Cuil claims to have the largest index in the world with 121,617,892,992 web pages indexed and is run by a group of ex Google staffers.

Using del.icio.us at Sydney Uni

Thu, 01 May 2008 10:48:11 +1100

Following the example of Missouri University of Science and Technology, I've recently set up a del.icio.us account for the Faculty of Economics and Business (where I work). Currently we monitor mentions of our staff in the media using google alerts and post them to our Staff in the News page.

From this I've begun building the Faculty of Economics and Business' del.icio.us account.

Why do this? Pretty much for the same reasons mentioned over at Andrew Careaga’s blog about marketing and public relations in higher education.

So what is this del.icio.us thing anyway? The dot edu guru has a great blog post that explains it all.

Horizon Report - Emerging Technologies - Summary

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:42:05 +1100

I have summarised sections of the Horizon Report 2008 for my colleagues at USYD who work in these areas. The focus of my summary is on Grassroots Video and Collaboration Webs and I encourage you to read the whole report as well as visit the Horizon Wiki for further information.

The summary is available on the Economics and Business website.

And Hello

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 14:56:04 +1100

Georg's wise and calming presence is sorely missed, and we are both delighted and a little jealous to hear how happily she has sea changed. However, after a flurry of organisational restructuring, Templatedata is proud to announce that its doors are open once more to the comings and goings of the blogosphere.

In the meantime, the University has realigned its web teams slightly.

Web Services as was has now merged with the Publications team to form Digital & Print Media (www.usyd.edu.au/dpm). This unit provides a one-stop-shop resource for cross platform (ie both print and web) publishing. At the same time, ICT (www.usyd.edu.au/ict) has been refining its service and its ownership of the technical side of the CMS. Between us we hope to meet all of your web development needs.

The new DPM team is falling into place nicely. You can expect to hear regularly from some of our team members both here and in an eNewsletter, as well as other guest contributors from around the Uni, including:

Nick Evans (Web Editor)
David Jessup (Web Development Officer)
Alex Motyka (Web Development Officer)
Danielle Warby (Web Officer, Economics and Business)

So then. Watch this space.

Goodbye

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 18:32:16 +1100

On Friday I finished up at the University. After ten years at Sydney in a wide variety of roles, it's time for something new. This time it's not a sabbatical, it's the real deal. So, I thought I would say thank you to all those who have read Templatedata over the years and good luck with your web endeavours in the future. I am handing the reins of Templatedata over to the more-than-capable hands of two of my colleagues. I'm sure they'll be here soon with some meaty posts.

Au revoir.

Universities and content management

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 15:22:47 +1100

They're all the same apparently.

So what I see happen over and over again these days is that some energetic and enthusiastic (though over time, increasingly less so) individuals start tackling the problems. And yes, these problems are the same ones, to the point where it becomes possible to identify three stages of development:
* First stage: building a plethora of websites;
* Second stage: trying to re-organize those into the same style, on the same server, using the same CMS -- but often, multiple instances of such a CMS, because there's no central authority to force everyone to organize the content, and everyone wants their own sandbox;
* Third stage: reorganizing those multiple websites into one CMS, with centralized control -- or at least, the opportunity to see what's happening -- and centralized landing pages for target audiences or subject channels.

As each of these stages can take anything from 5 to 10 years, and most will still be at the end of the first, one can only guess how long many of them will take to accomplish renovation. And it certainly doesn't help that most of the people struggling to make a change are working in a vacuum (from more than one perspective). It induces them to re-invent the wheel and, at the same time, making the mistakes others have made before.

Yes, I would say that's pretty accurate. It's Adriaan Bloem.