WordPress Training Videos
July 23, 2010
It’s been awfully quite around this site lately. That’s mostly because I’ve been busy working on a never-ending stream of client projects. An increasing number of those projects involve using WordPress in some context.
After coaching numerous clients on the intricacies of WordPress, I started to wonder if there might not be a better way to approach training. Eventually, I decided that training videos might be be the solution. As a result, I’ve spent a fair amount of the past month recording a series of WordPress training videos that are now available at no cost on WordPressTraining.com.
My hope is that the site will appeal to both novice and experienced WordPress users. Whether you’re looking for a comprehensive overview of the entire WordPress system, or simple insight into a single administrative page, WordPressTraining.com should help you get the most out of your WordPress blog.
I’ll be adding new videos as time allows, and, of course, updating the videos as new versions of WordPress are released.
The current collection of videos focuses on what I refer to as Core WordPress training — a detailed overview of the various blogging features and administrative options.
I look forward to receiving constructive feedback from the community. If there are specific topics you’d like to see covered in future videos, drop me a note, or leave a comment below.
AJAX Hall of Shame: MarketWatch Reinvents The Blink Tag
February 13, 2006
A few weeks ago I happened to make the mistake of catching up on some financial news before finishing my first cup of coffee. I followed a link to a story on MarketWatch.com that immediately made me begin to feel queasy. As I stared at the page in my partially caffeinated state it appeared that multiple elements of text in the story were blinking at me in different colors, and numbers seemed to be changing before my eyes. Eventually I began to grasp what I was seeing. MarketWatch has jumped on the AJAX bandwagon and taken real-time stock quotes to a new level in the process.
The MarketWatch quotes display with either a minty green or pale pink background depending on whether the current quote has risen or fallen since the previous quote. Every few seconds the numbers blink as a stocks price changes. For stocks that are trading up and down throughout the day, readers are treated to alternating flashes of pink and green. The numbers include the current price, the daily price change, and the percentage change – so it’s a fairly long string of numbers that changes with each update. A story with a half dozen quotes embedded in it can be a truly a mind numbing experience.
This amazing innovation got me thinking – why stop at real-time quotes? Why not have whole sentences and paragraphs change in real-time as well? After all, the real-time quotes could change in a way that might fundamentally alter the nature of a story. Wouldn’t it be better to have writers create alternate scenarios that could be swapped into the story as the corresponding stock prices change? Talk about stickiness. Readers could spend an entire day just trying to get through one story;)
All sarcasm aside, I like the Web 2.0 thing as much as the next guy, but every once in a while I run across a DHTML or AJAX widget that just makes me scratch my head and wonder, “what could they have possibly been thinking”. Just because something is technologically possible doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. It’s all too easy to get carried away with the coolness factor of some new technique and lose sight of the user and the message you’re trying to convey.
In all fairness, I think the MarketWatch feature could work with a little tweaking. The real-time updates need to be removed from the article copy and placed in a quote box beside the article. The flashing and blinking would still be distracting, but at least the readers wouldn’t see numbers changing mid-sentence. Better yet, the updates could be moved to the real-time graph box that only displays when a user mouses over a ticker symbol. That would eliminate all distraction and give users the choice of viewing real-time numbers at will.
Note, I haven’t even begun to address the accessibility issues related to the MarketWatch real-time quotes. I’m guessing Jaws and other screen readers might actually explode if they were to encounter one of these pages.
Do you have other nominations for an AJAX Hall of Shame? Tell us about it in the comments.
Content Migration: Making It Successful
January 17, 2006
I’d like to talk for a moment about what I call the Content Migration Fantasy. In this fantasy, an experienced team lead by a tough-yet-wise project manager ports legacy content to a new system. This being a fantasy, the work is done quickly and efficiently, due, in no small part, to a brilliantly executed content inventory and information architecture. In this fantasy, not only do the items that should be moved end up in the right place, but the items that shouldn’t be moved stay right where they are.
And, of course, the migration phase of the project comes in on time and under budget. No, better, it’s done early and under budget. The content migration team is celebrating at the local pub while other teams are sweating deadlines.
In the real world, we all go into content migrations with high hopes and solid plans. Depending on the size of the site and the culture of the organization, you can expect delays, misunderstandings, and more than one last-minute “uh oh”. There is a lot of good advice relating to managing the migration portion of a CMS project, and I’ve linked to some favorites below. In the meantime, here’s my short strategic plan:
Five Steps To A Better Website In The New Year
January 8, 2006
The New Year is the perfect time to bring a fresh perspective to your website. Whether you’re planning a major site redesign in the coming year, or you’ve just finished one in the old year, there are a number of things you can do to improve the quality of your site.
Give Your Content Some Attention
If you’re using a content management system (CMS) there’s always the temptation to assume that your content is fine. It’s being “managed” right? So what could possibly go wrong?
Plenty.
Use the New Year as an opportunity to review the quality of your content. While most CMS systems include some form of workflow, you might be surprised by some of the things that slip onto your website. Be on the lookout for content that is outdated, inaccurate, irrelevant, or just plain incoherent.
Continue Reading…
The Simpsons For The Visually Impaired
May 20, 2005
When explaining web accessibility to the uninitiated I find that it sometimes helps to apply the concept to other mediums. Here’s an example I hadn’t thought of before. Imagine trying to watch The Simpsons without actually watching The Simpsons. Each episode has a million little sight gags and visual clues that fly by so quickly that you practically need a TiVo to keep up.
So how do visually impaired people watch The Simpsons? With the Descriptive Video Service (DVS) of course. DVS is an audio track that explains the action taking place in a television program. With The Simpsons that includes reading all of the oddball signs that fly by during the course of an episode (not to mention Bart’s scribbling on the chalk board at the start of each episode).
WFMU’s station manager Ken has an interesting post about his accidental discovery of the DVS signal while battling with his broken VCR. Like many people, he hadn’t really given any thought to how visually impaired users might watch and enjoy programs like The Simpsons. At first he assumed The Simpsons were doing a parody of Arrested Development.
Ken also makes some interesting observations regarding censorship and editorializing on the DVS track, but that’s probably a topic for another post on another blog.
At any rate, if you’re interested in hearing what the DVS track for The Simpsons sounds like, Ken has posted an entire episode available for download.
The Content Inventory: Roadmap to a Successful CMS Implementation
April 5, 2005
The sad truth about many CMS implementations is that not nearly enough time is spent working with content. All too often, organizations get wrapped up in issues related to technology and design, forgetting what the system is supposed to be managing.
It’s easy to avoid focusing on content when you have no idea what it is or where it is. CMS vendors focus on the user-friendly aspects of their software; rarely do they address the complexities of content migration. Since the system you’re implementing is supposed to make content management a breeze, there’s a temptation to avoid thinking about content until the very last minute. This flawed assumption has doomed all too many CMS projects.
Our first article defined content in all of its many forms. This article focuses on the nuts and bolts of identifying content and coralling it in such a way that you have what you need when it comes time to populate your CMS. The key to achieving this goal is a process called the Content Inventory.
Wild Information: Content in Its Native Environment
March 23, 2005
Sometimes it feels like the most neglected aspect of implementing a content management system is . . . the content. Content development and migration pose a variety of challenges, and we’ve’ve written a series of articles discussing these issues. This critical look at preparing content for the web will help you create a plan for implementing a CMS on time and on budget.
This first article defines content types that need to be accommodated by your CMS and analyzes common problems we’ve faced when it comes to corraling content. The second article in the series unfolds the roadmap to a successful CMS implementation: the Content Inventory. Our final pieces looks at content migration and the triage process often needed to migrate content in a timely manner.
Accessible Folksonomies
February 27, 2005
I’ve been working with web technology for over a decade now and I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed an idea gain mindshare as rapidly as the Folksonomy has. It seems like everywhere I turn someone is discussing this new categorization system.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the term, a folksonomy is basically a taxonomy created by the people and for the people. A community of users collaborates by “tagging” various types of content with user created keywords. This concept is flourishing on a handful of community driven sites that all seem to have a certain addictive quality. I think the best way to fully grasp how folksonomies work is to dive into one of the sites that makes use of the concept. Flickr, 43things, and del.icio.us are good places to start. Given the success of these early experiments in group tagging I have no doubt that we’ll be seeing folksonomies implemented on all sorts of sites in the very near future.
Lately I’ve been thinking about one particular artifact of the folksonomy phenomenon — the folksonomy menu that serves as a sort of buzz index providing users with a quick visualization of the most popular tags (technically I think it’s called a weighted list). Popular tags are displayed in a larger font and it’s relatively easy to identify hot topics at a glance. This visual representation of the popularity of any given tag is undeniably cool. However, once the coolness factor wears off it becomes fairly obvious that these menus are also not very accessible.
I realize these sites are currently trail-blazers and they deserve to be recognized as such. I have no intention of detracting from the innovative work that’s being done. My concern is that once folksonomies enter the mainstream, the next wave of sites implementing them will likely begin a wholesale copying of the work that’s being done by these innovators — markup and all.
Continue Reading…
The Accessibility Challenge
February 2, 2005
We recently completed a large website redevelopment project. The site, when launched, contained nearly 1,000 individual content items. Since launch, that number has grown. We expect it to continue to increase, especially as the departments who took a wait and see attitude start contributing content to the site. If past experience holds true, this site will have close to 5,000 content items within a year or two.
One of the stated goals for the site was accessibilty. Granted, this was not the term used, but as we went through the process of identifying the site’s customers, local senior citizens were mentioned. Because this is a city website, they do not have to comply with Section 508 — however, as many local government agencies choose to do, the city made compliance a goal. Throughout the design process, we kept this in mind, and, because the backend of the site is a content management system, we included “hooks” to ensure things like alt attributes weren’t forgotten.
Okay, fine. Mission accomplished.
Sort of. The day-to-management of the website is handled in a decentralized manner by non-technical staff. The final review before new content is published is done from an an editorial perspective — the webmaster doesn’t know HTML, and the chances of her learning it are slim. When we loaded the original batch of content on behalf of the client, we converted as much as possible to plain HTML. Unfortunately, due to a variety of factors, not everything could be converted, and there are many documents posted as PDF files.
CMS Do's and Don'ts
January 21, 2005
Have you made peace with your Content Management System yet? If you’re like most CMS users, the answer is ‘no’ (or a steady stream of expletives that could easily be understood as a ‘no’). For many, CMS has become synonymous with the word ‘failure’.
There seems to be a widely held perception that CMS is a losing proposition. As a result, many corporations and government agencies have hesitated to make a commitment to CMS. A surprising number of corporate and government websites use no CMS at all, or a mixed up assortment of homegrown tools that can only loosely be referred to as a CMS.
Depending on their circumstances these organizations may not be able to resist the lure of a true CMS for much longer. There are hundreds of CMS vendors competing for the available market share. If you are not yet using a CMS it’s only a matter of time before a key decision maker in your organization gets sold on the idea. You know how it is when management latches onto buzzwords.
CMS doesn’t have to be synonymous with failure. There is no doubt that the right CMS, properly implemented, can offer real benefits to organizations of all sizes. The catch seems to be that it’s not always easy to find the right CMS, let alone a qualified team with the skills needed for a proper implementation.
As businesses of all sizes embark on their first CMS project they need to realize that they are venturing into territory that in many ways is unique. A CMS implementation is not quite like any other technology project. If for no other reason because the end result is a system that is used to manage what will essentially become the public face of your organization.
With this in mind I offer a few do’s and don’ts that could help you minimize your chances of joining the ranks of those who are unhappy with their CMS.
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