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2016 In Review: Helping Planners with "Public Service Essentials"

2016 In Review: Helping Planners with “Public Service Essentials”

Part of this last year was spent attending various planning conferences throughout the West, as part of a traveling series on “Public Service Essentials.”

The workshop was originally road-tested at the Peninsula Section of the WA APA conference in Bremerton in the fall of 2015. Feedback was positive and helpful in developing the content.

For 2016, the workshop first rolled out at the Planning…

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INDEX vs. SEARCH

Here it is….the heavyweight match! I’ve also thrown in the concordance for good measure.

So the story goes….an analysis of various tools reveal potential successes in findability. The more complex the technical documentation, the more accuracy and timing factor into content retrieval events.

This pretty much sums it up. More examples will follow soon.

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A Folk Hero and a Conductor: Finally Meeting #10

A Folk Hero and a Conductor: Finally Meeting #10

Jim Zorn has been a household name wherever I’ve lived since I was about the age of eight or nine.

For those of you who don’t follow football or the NFL, Zorn was the first quarterback of the Seattle Seahawks franchise, and emerged as such in its first training camp in the summer of 1976….a unique left-handed quarterback with a funny last name….and I can relate, because I happen to also be a…

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Chicago expansion!

I know your first thought. That’s not it. The Windy City hasn’t added another pro hockey franchise with a secret agenda of dividing the Blackhawks faithful.

The company has just opened a Chicago area branch! A presence here is a perfect fit for the company.

First off, the history of urban planning in Chicago is unrivaled in the country. The 1892/93 World’s Fair launched the City Beautiful…

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Document Usability, Pt. 4: ABSTRACTS as a Solution

Document Usability, Pt. 4: ABSTRACTS as a Solution

We left off in Document Usability, Pt. 3 where we identified the challenges and trappings in which government and business documentation has a tendency to get caught.

Now let’s begin by identifying some solutions. Today, we’ll begin with Abstracts. As the “Solution Series” rolls out over the next few weeks, I’ll cover each usability feature that plays a critical in easing the navigability of…

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THW&I presents "Usability for Planners" & "Counter Culture" in Bremerton

THW&I presents “Usability for Planners” & “Counter Culture” in Bremerton

The Kitsap Conference Center overlooks the busy ferry terminal in Bremerton, WA

Yesterday was a busy day! I hosted two morning workshops at the WA APA Southern section conference at the Kistsap Conference Center in Bremerton, Washington. The workshops are an ongoing series that I will be bringing to future planning gatherings.

Let’s begin with “Usability for Planners: Bringing Your Plans and…

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Planning and a Patient Public: Anticipating the New Seattle Waterfront

Planning and a Patient Public: Anticipating the New Seattle Waterfront

Bertha on the move again? It appears to be finally happening.

After lots of stalled action on renewing Seattle’s waterfront (with the Bertha faux pas that went on, and on, and on….), part of the process of replacing a double-Decker swine of a freeway that’s orphaned and compromised the city’s waterfront for decades — literally less than three months into the Eisenhower presidency in April 1953 —…

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