Bob Browning's blog

The term ‘design patterns’ has been used in computer science to refer to computer techniques that can be re-used rather than having to be worked out from scratch every time. Now the term is being hijacked by the web design community to refer to design problems that can be solved once and then reused. If you design websites you need to know what this is about.

Yahoo are perhaps the most advanced uses of this technique. They have a design pattern library which you can access here. http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/

Each pattern is specified with:

• An image showing how the design is presented
• A problem summary (e.g. The designer needs to call attention to where a data value or content has changed…)
• Use when – A list of places where the solution would be used.
• The solution. A specification of the solution e.g. Change the background color of the content area or data value to a light pastel color.
• Rationale. The reason for adopting this approach
• Accessibility. A discussion of the accessibility of this pattern.

This very formal presentation forces the designer to think through the part of the design and to make sure that every issue has been covered.

By doing this once and then pulling the pattern off the shelf when it is needed the design team:
Prevents continual reworking of ideas

• Makes sure usability and accessibility issues are thoroughly thought through
• Ensures a consistent user interface throughout the site. The customer only has to learn one way of doing things

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A month or so ago I received a regular email newsletter from Business Link for London. This site is big on advice to small business in London, paid for by you and me.

It had a link to a white paper ‘choosing a web designer’ so I put it to one side to read later. Here we are ‘later’ so I resurrected the mail and clicked the link to go to the white paper. Here is what happened:

1. I was asked for email and password
2. I hadn’t been back for some time so the site asked me to confirm my details and add a few items of information
3. The screen then said. And I quote:

Thank you, your Contact and company details have now been updated.
Please select which details you wish to review and update.
Contact and company details
Additional contact details

etc etc

Er Um… the white paper – remember???

Form someone dishing out advice, you would think they could do better than this.

And the white paper…

Long on platitudes short on practical advice. They refer to a couple of developer directories but no web links to make the easy to find – you have to Google them yourself.

If you couldn’t work out things like the following for yourself you have no business in charge of a we site:

“Look for developers with a track record and capabilities that are appropriate to the type of project you wish to undertake. “

on costs …

“In instances where work is billed on the basis of time and materials, the key factor is usually staff day rates … ” give me a break! How about telling people to insist on a fixed price.

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Microsoft see advertising as a major revenuw stream for the future, and have set up the adcenter labs project to research advertising data. The results are still at the proof-of-concept stage but this is definitely something to track.

Here are some highlights:

• Search funnel – having searched on a keyword, what keywords will the user try next to get to the results they need. This tool tells you. The keywords tracked are limited at present but it will be very interesting when the full database is built.
• Seasonal trends – shows you how the usage of a particular keyword varies over the year.
• Content categorisation – given a web site address the program gives you its best guess at the business areas it covers.
• Demogaphics – given a web site address give you the age ranges of people visiting the site.

and much more…

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I got a call from Emily – a local Chiswick resident, who wanted to publicise her book – or at least get it published. As her knowledge of the web is zero and her budget about the same size we took it on pro bono – I think that is what lawyers call it.

Check it out all you publishers.

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The first e-conveyancing pilot is being launched in October 2007. I am sure it will be successful. Participation is voluntary and therefore will only be used by technology early adopters and evangelists in larger law firms, with client who are keen to be at the forefront of technology.

I predict that the results will be published showing unbounded enthusiasm by users and great business benefits.

Wait until the thing goes live. Average punters are going to be told that they won’t be signing their conveyancing documents because the technology for electronic signature is so complex that the solicitor (who probably doesn’t fully understand it) has to sign everything on their behalf. This is for transactions involving 6-7 figure sums of money.

The first e-conveyancing transaction that goes pear-shaped will hit the front pages in the first year and the project will spiral out of control as people try and rescue their careers from disaster.

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My trusty video recorder just packed in. I don’t watch that much TV, but the few things I like tend to be on at inconvenient times so I like to record them. That is what VCRs were for.

They don’t make them any more, and as far as I can make out the popular replacement item is a DVD recorder. However I have heard these are not that user friendly. Also as far as I can tell most of them don’t have a digital tuner, so in the new world of digital television they will be about as useful as a housebrick for recording TV. I have a Freeview box but long ago gave up on trying to record from it. Switch it on, tune to the right channel, set the VCR to the right channel and hope that no-one comes along and switches channels in the meantime. It doesn’t work.

But there is an answer. The PVR. These have a couple of digital tuners (so you can watch one channel while recording another) and record on a hard disk. Basically Sky+ but for free digital TV.

But Currys doesn’t even have a PVR category on their web site. They stock about four models. Most other retailers are the same.

So here we are:

1. The digital conversion program completes in 2012 – just six years away
2. While some Televisions being sold now have a digital tuner almost no recording devices do.

Madness.

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This quote was attributed to Epimenides – himself a Cretan. Wait a minute: if his statement is correct than as a Cretan he must be lying – therefore his statement must be incorrect. But the statement can’t be both correct and incorrect, it is a logical loop.

Some logic problems like this are quite hard. Here is another one, not so difficult.

“Growth will require the investment of more money in the company”

“We need growth therefore we should invest more money in the company”

They look the same, and a surprising number of business people think they are the same. However Investment without a clear plan can do the opposite – loading a company with Debt which can’t be repaid.

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I always recommend to clients that they put their phone number prominently on every page of their ecommerce sites. I believe it re-assures customers that if they have a problem, the customer can talk to someone.

I just proved to myself that it was the right advice for the wrong reason.

I purchased a print server from a very well-known electronics firm that we have used for years (who shall of course be nameless). It turned up and I could see from the picture on the outside of the box that it was the wrong sort of centronics plug. I didn’t even remove the shrink-wrap. So I went into ‘my account’ => ‘select order’ => ‘returns’ => and the system told be that because I had waited more than 7 days it was too late to return it. This was on the same day it was delivered, the day after I ordered it. But the good news was that there was a form to contest this, which I filled out.

Nothing

A week passed, this wretched box still on my desk, I went back to the site so I could phone them. What do you know – no phone number. Which I hadn’t noticed over many years of visiting the site.

I am sure some accountant thought it was a good idea to save money on support staff by not publishing their phone number, but it means that they have lost my custom for ever because of a £45 item. My experience over many years is that every cock-up is a sales opportunity. A failure handled well can bring you repeat business and recommendations. Handled badly and you have lost your customer.

How can you handle the problem well if your customer can’t talk to you?

In any event I have learned my lesson – I will check for a phone number before I buy anything, no matter how well-known the firm.

Bob
http://www.textor.com

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Google calendar is a great piece of work, smooth as silk, very functional. But sadly missing one item I neeed – synchronisation to Outlook. Without this its no use to me.

I will carry on using Plaxo – nice system and syncs beautifully – most of the time.

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Web 2.0 and AJAX are the way of the future for sure, Microsoft is about to lose its word processing market as new web-based word processing applications such as Writely take over.

Or not.

I was too late to sign up for writely, but there is a new application at http://www.ajaxwrite.com/ which you can use for free. Sadly no cigar – it is full of bugs. But an interesting demonstration of what is possible.I think it exposes some limitations. I would be interested to know if people who have tried other products such as Writely see the same sort of thing.

1. To edit a file you have to upload it. As most broadband has a 256k upload speed this could take a while for large documents.
2. Can a server-based application ever have anough control over the printer to get things formatted just right?
3. How can the sever-based application save the file to the right path on my computer?
4. I like to edit pictures in my image editor and just copy and paste direct into my word document – will that ever be possible?

These are just a few things that occured to me, I am sure there are more. My feeling is that this is never really going to work 100% unless and until Micosoft decides to get into this market and adapt IE for the requirements of its web-based applications. Thereby opening up yet more security holes no doubt. And why would they do that anyway and open themselves up to real competition?I remain a sceptic.

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