A few months back I launched a long overdue redesign of this site. I’ve often thought of the content on my site as information layers, like the strata you would see in a cross section of the earth. Perhaps it’s an expression of my subconscious memories of growing up in the midwest where the earth and agriculture are a central part of life. Though I’ve long since moved away, the landscape still drives my aesthetic. Similarly, web pages stack content sections. A blog post, for example, would have a layer for the article, a layer for meta data like tags, and yet another layer for comments.
Aarron Walter
Color Mixing With RGBa
Dive Into the Modern Web Workshop at Web Directions USA
I’m co-presenting with Leslie Jensen-Inman and Glenda Sims a workshop called “Dive Into the Modern Web” today at Web Directions US in Atlanta, GA. This workshop will help educators and self-guided learners get up to speed with the changing landscape of the modern Web.
Beyond Usability on The Big Web Show
I had the pleasure of speaking with Dan Benjamin and Jeffrey Zeldman on The Big Web Show about findability, web standards, usability, and emotional design. Have a listen, won’t you?
Findability/SEO Cheat Sheet: Guide to Web Standards SEO
When I was researching my book, I asked a group of my students at The Art Institute of Atlanta what sorts of content they’d hope to find in a book exploring findability and SEO through web standards. Thinking like students with limited time to work on their projects, they all agreed that “the book should include coverage of what needs to be prioritized, and what can be done later if you run out of time”. Brilliant idea! I never would have thought of that. Well it’s covered in chapter 9 thanks to them.
As I was running through my table of contents with them, they pointed out that it’s all useful info, but it would be nice if there were a quick reference that you could just print out and keep nearby as you start new projects. That way you don’t miss any of the important stuff you should be doing to make your site findable.
I’ve created what I think is a pretty comprehensive findability strategy cheat sheet that will guide you through all of the stuff you should be doing when creating new websites or even redesign existing ones. All of the advice follows industry best practices and web standards, and have references to the places in my book or in the 5 free online chapters where you’ll find detailed explanation and examples of how to do this stuff.
I hope you find it useful!
Tim Berners-Lee Video: The Semantic Web
I recently ran across a wonderful video on YouTube in which Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the Wold Wide Web, speaks about the idea of the Semantic Web. It’s a simple, yet elegant concept that has yet to come to fruition as Berners-Lee had originally dreamed.
Win an Autographed Copy of Building Findable Websites
To celebrate the release of my new book Building Findable Websites: Web Standards SEO and Beyond, I’m giving away an autographed copy to one lucky winner.
What's it Like to Write a Book?
At SXSW last year I met Michael Nolan – senior acquisitions editor for Peachpit Press – and pitched him my idea for the book Building Findable Websites. Almost one year later the book is in print and on its way to a bookstore near you. read on »
A Brief Interview With Jeffrey Zeldman
In preparation for An Event Apart New Orleans where I’ll be speaking about how to make websites more findable with web standards, Jeffrey Zeldman conducted a brief interview with me consisting of just one, simple question.
An Event Apart New Orleans: Hear Me Speak
An Event Apart is a brilliantly inspiring conference series crafted by Jeffrey Zeldman and Eric Meyer that provides attendees with a deeper understanding of web standards and emerging best practices in web design and development. They’ve recently published the schedule and list of speakers for 2008, and I’m happy to say I’ll be sharing the stage with Zeldman, Meyer, and a host of Web luminaries in New Orleans.
SXSW Panel Picker Open: Place Your Vote
South By Southwest, the coolest Web conference on the planet that takes place annually in Austin, TX, has let loose it’s panel picker. Rather than creating a schedule of discussion panels and presentations that may not interest conference goers, the SXSW organizers have devised a democratic way for people to vote on what they want to hear discussed.
How to Convince Your Employer or Teacher to Adopt Web Standards
It can be a tough task trying to convince your boss that the company or department should adopt Web Standards when building projects. Change is often seen as time consuming, inconvenient, tedious, expensive, and not worth the effort. Chances are that if you are trying to make the case to follow Web Standards to your boss by arguing from the “moral high ground” by saying “it’s the right thing to do”, you are not going to have much success. If you want to make real change in the industry, you have to speak to the bottom line: Profit.
Documenting Change in the Web Industry
I have been recording some of the stories of my students in the Interactive Media Design department at The Art Institute of Atlanta and how they are introducing their employers to Web Standards. The project is called The Web Standards Documentary Project. Our program has been teaching Web Standards since 2002. Throughout the curriculum students learn the benefits of separating formating from structure, building pages with semantic markup, and following Accessibility guidelines. Many of our students have made some significant changes in the industry, and in some cases have successfully converted their organizations to following Web Standards, sometimes teaching courses to their entire team.
It’s not always all smiles and giggles, though. Sometimes students make the case to their employers for using Web Standards, and they are met with significant opposition. I see the stories of failure as important as the stories of success, as it indicates to us what is really causing the slow adoption in the industry. In some situations, we can teach our students how to overcome the opposition by appealing to the business’s bottom line. There are some situations, though, where it’s very difficult to convince an employer that making the change is in their best interest, as the immediate financial costs may be prohibitive.
If you are one of my students, or an alumnus of our program and you have a story to share, positive, negative, or otherwise, please get in touch with me so I can record your story. If you are no longer in Atlanta, I can record you via Skype. If you are an educator teaching Web Standards at your school, I’d love to hear from you too. Perhaps this endeavor could become a larger repository of stories of change.
