Son of Eggert

At the corner of Obsessive and Wry

[warandpeas]

We say Goodbye to 2017. We say Goodbye to a good year. Here’s our Top 10. 

Thanks for reading everybody. It’s a pleasure to make these silly comics and to receive all the crazy love. See you next year!  

[myjetpack]

I made a cartoon about @neil-gaiman ’s new Norse Mythology book for the @guardian

[neil-gaiman]

This is as good as it gets, really, isn’t it?

[eggertson]

Finally, an anti-drone approach that might work.

[eggertson]

This glossary was published by Argus Centre for Information Architecture, sponsored by a now-defunct consulting firm run by Peter Morville and Louis Rosenfeld, authors of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web.

This isn't required reading, but might help explain some of the terms used in the book and in the class.

The glossary is available for download and non-commercial use.

[eggertson]

Hershey's has a separate Facebook page for each of its major (and sometime minor) brands. A team works to engage with folks who "Like" the brands.

Their three pillars: Awareness, content and speed/agility.

Their rule for social media engagement: don't be clueless.

As consumers increasingly spend time on Facebook and similar social sites, and spend less time watching TV ads, companies are adapting with sometimes innovative (and sometimes clueless) attempts to get consumers to pay attention to their products (my opinion, not Ragan.com's).

Click on the headline to visit www.ragan.com and read more.

[eggertson]

One of the authors of the book Information Architecture for the World Wide Web talks about the evolving role of the information architect in an online world that has many channels, platforms and interconnections.

What used to be a fairly straightforward task -- designing the underlying structure of a website -- is now much more complicated:

The dance between Google and search engine optimization (SEO) has shifted attention from "home pages" to the design of findable, social objects that serve as both destination and gateway. The rise of user-generated content has invited the marriage of architectures and algorithms in support of conversation and collaboration. And, the growth of mobile has us thinking hard about Responsive Web Design and Ubiquitous Service Design in a world of cross-channel user experience.

If you don't let the layers of web design jargon phase you, he describes something akin to what users are experiencing. Our online experiences used to be less complicated. Nowadays bloggers aren't even sure if their blog is their main publishing platform, or if it has shifted to the status update realms of Twitter, Facebook and similar services. Imagine how people running a large company with multiple brands feel, as they see their brands represented on multiple platforms in a variety of ways.

Morville again: 

Increasingly, I'm asked by my clients to formulate a "web strategy" that explains relationships between their sites and social media channels, and these conversations naturally lead towards development of full-blown strategies for mobile and multi-channel user experience as well.

Most people taking PR40 don't have the luxury of having only one role. Either handling online content is only one duty among many, or managing websites has morphed into managing online relationships across a number of platforms.  Like Morville, our jobs aren't locked into a single website. We have to adapt to a more complex interactive landscape.

[eggertson]

A humourous take on the way clients cause problems when they get too hands-on instead of saying what impact they want the website to have.

While this is partly true, there are lots of web developers who need a graphic designer to help them with the look of the site or online application.

[eggertson]

Tod Maffin is a bit of a genius at presentations, so I pay attention when he gives advice on how to make mine better. How to make better screenshots in your PowerPoint is his tip in this short video...

[eggertson]

This is an extreme example of the User-centred design I talked about Thursday night in the PR40 class.  The writer encourages start-ups to start with a bare-bones product and iterate, based on feedback.

[eggertson]

Recommended Reading for PR40

Don't Make Me Think: a common sense approach to web usability (Second Edition), by Steve Krug, New Riders, 2005.

While there are more detailed sources of information on electronic information design, or information architecture, it's hard to find a more insightful entry point than this 216-page trade paperback.  It's available in Saskatchewan libraries, through online bookstores, like Indigo-Chapters, as a PDF e-book, or as an e-book from the publisher.

You can also read Chapter 2 for free on Krug's website.  (The Table of Contents.)

This book will show some refreshingly simple approaches for organizing information online in a way that make it easier for the users.

- - -

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, 3rd Edition, by Peter Morville and Louis Rosenfeld, O'Reilly Media, 2006.

A detailed, dense book that takes you through the theory and practice of planning the structure of websites. This thorough textbook has practical advice for conducting analysis and deciding on categories and other organizing principles for digital content.

Available at libraries and online bookstores, as well as in digitial E-Pub format.

I'll publish additional links to useful online information, including items that my PR students come across.

[eggertson]

Web designer Andrew Maier pulls together links to several sources about web content strategy, and sums up what content strategy development is all about.

[eggertson]

PR40 Class Notes - to come

Watch here for info the University of Regina Continuing Education course on Electronic Information Design. Classes start in January 2012. Questions? Contact me at [email protected] 

Eric Eggertson