This is a nice little plugin for WordPress that cleans you posts to make them validate HTML:
http://urbangiraffe.com/plugins/tidy-up/
Nice HTML Tidy WordPress plugin
Great stakeholder workshop technique
Got this forum posting thread third hand (or perhaps even fourth I’m not sure?) from a work colleague today and thought it was a great approach. Simple, fun and sounds like it would be very effective:
- Everyone draw what you think the site homepage might look like.
- Each stakeholder talked about what they drew and we discussed who the focal user was in each drawing.
- Toss the drawing and do it again based on what you heard others say.
- Again, everyone talked about what they drew. This time we talked about how the focal user is being served.
- Toss that drawing and do it again.
- By the time we were on the third drawing there was consensus on what was important. And who the focal user is.
It was a half-day workshop.
I had large drawing pads (thin easy-to-tear paper) and twist-crayons (to make it fun).
I also didn’t give them more than 10 minutes on each drawing so that only what they thought was most important would be included. However, they all discarded their first and second drawings so the first drawing session actually took more like 45 minutes. The second and third drawing sessions took less time.
It’s adapted from a technique called the Delphi method.
Socially responsible Australian Superannuation
I started looking into purveyors of socially responsible superannuation funds recently (being unhappy with my current employer default superannuation plan) and ended up choosing Just Super.
I thought that I would share my choice here, for anyone who may be looking to invest their super socially responsibly. I have to say, it was pleasing to see Australia actually has quite a few SRI superannuation options.
Also Just Super’s website was far better than any of the competitors at the time which was the icing on the cake for me.
If…
If I was on time to work yesterday (18/6/07) I would have been very close to being involved in this senseless and fatal shooting.
My thoughts go out to the victims wife and 3 children. He was a courageous and honourable man.
Great study and article on usability of website navigation methods
I am looking into usability research on drop-down, fly-out, hierarchical menus for my current project and came across this great article:
http://www.eastonmass.net/tullis/WebsiteNavigation/WebsiteNavigationPaper.htm
I found it a fantastic reference for both the study results as well as the way they conducted the study.
It would have been nice though if they tried two other navigation types as well:
- one with only the high level options, and
- one with multiple fly-out or drop-down menus (instead of only one level of fly out).
Worm farm fun
Bought and setup a worm farm this weekend. To cut down on our waste, re-use our food scraps on the herbs and generally try and do our bit re the light footprint.
Oliver loved helping me set it up, he was holding and picking up the big fat worms and generally having a great time.
It’s freezing cold here tonight and the instrcutions say if it gets below 10 degrees C to put a blanket over them which I promptly did. A blanket over my worms to keep them warm, thats pretty wierd.
Photoshop thumbnails in Windows explorer
Found this little package with instructions that enables you to view PhotoShop file thumbnails in Window Explorer.
http://board.iexbeta.com/index.php?showtopic=59007
Nice one!
My Blog is getting there – flickr photos added
Still working on this Blog to get it just right.
Tried a series of Flickr photo plugins until I found this really simple one that was exactly what I wanted – flickrRSS. No crazy Flash viewer or featured laden AJAX interface – just plain simple image goodness. :)