my thoughts

Whilst I'm on the subject of <geekery> then I ought to point out to those of you that don't know - JQuery is a superb JS library.

jQuery is a fast, concise, JavaScript Library that simplifies how you traverse HTML documents, handle events, perform animations, and add Ajax interactions to your web pages. jQuery is designed to change the way that you write JavaScript.

The core makes traversing and manipulating elements as easy as writing CSS selectors and the extensions (such as the (excellent) UI library make this one quick and efficient way to modern web dev).

Plus its only 15KB... Cooooool!
→ jquery.com/

This may appear slightly geeky to most of you, but to those in the know - this is probably one of the single most exciting things to come out of Microsoft in all their years of involvement with the web.

We were doing MVC development back in '2001 at least (in Java/EJB) and it just makes great sense in many situations.

Together with LINQ, I reckon that .net web dev has come of age.

Time to get coding!
→ ASP.NET MVC Framework (Part 1) - ScottGu's Blog

The BBC has a section on how to take good photos which covers: people with buildings, buildings, light, landscape, colour and composition.
www.bbc.co.uk/britain/goodphotos/index.shtml

tweeduizend.be
A beautiful and minimalist website with a simple purpose: photographs, Antwerp, the internet.

Quarlo.com
I have long been a fan of Quarlo, a site featuring the work of Todd Gross. His work is all shot on film (Nikon F80) and his style captures human behaviour and emotion brtilliantly - bright, saturated, contrasty or monochrome and moody - always superb.

nyclondon
A black and white photography blog - I occasionally visit here for inspiration.

cameratoss (the blog)
Throwing your camera whilst it is recording an image can produce some wild results - see them here.

Minimising distraction
I often find it hard to concentrate. I am continually aware of all that is going on around me: the tapping of keys, the falling rain, background conversations, the hum of computers. These are not just there as a backdrop but something intrusive. It is also something that affects every aspect of my life - I will watch a film and be distracted by the subtle details in the soundtrack, or the clever angle and use of focus in the camera work.

So how does this affect the way I work? I guess like many knowledge workers I have to juggle many demands: prioritising and acting on information from projects, clients, colleagues and alerts from the computers. There is an expectation amongst people in my industry that we are always on, always ready to drop everything and answer your query right there and then. Compare this to people who work in other environments where their role prevents them from responding to messages as they arrive. I have been thinking about this for a while, as in my new role is more customer-facing, and I was given a blackberry.

I do generally perform best when able to concentrate on tasks without interruption, and in which I can give time to respond to demands in a controlled fashion. How best to optimise the need to be available with the need to get things done? The following two articles have some interesting points to consider.
→ 10 quick and (almost) painless ways to kill distractions
→ How to check e-mail twice a day.. or even every 10 days

This need to be focussed reminds me of an old article on Joel on Software on the subject of flow.
→ Fire and Motion (Sometimes I just can't get anything done)



Using e-mail effectively
I have lately wondered whether it is worthwhile having a kind of personal e-mail policy, which defines how often you will check messages, and how long a message will be. I generally do not appreciate one-line e-mails, but the other extreme is also poor: huge e-mail essays which overwhelm the recipient.

I think a good e-mail message is one which applies the basic web usability guidelines described in Krug's "Don't make me think". The recently publicised "five sentences" website makes the point, but forgets that like most usability points, they cannot be distilled into hard rules. The important point is that we should do the thinking when we write the message, so that we minimise the burden on our recipient! Use a clear visual hierarchy (headings, lists and paragraphs), design for for wayfinding, and summarise your point(s) at the top if its a long one!
→ Five Sentences (A personal e-mail policy)
→ Don't make me think

Provide a good subject line. An empty subject is awful because we receive so many messages. If you can summarise the point of your message in a short space you help the recipient decide on when to act on your message, and to be able to find it again.

More soon..

I recently discovered the isleofwightweather.co.uk website which offers a realtime storm tracker. This is a pretty cool service showing live strike types and locations.

The sotonmet, offers the current weather of interest to mariners with data from Southampton dockhead (close to the centre of Southampton). There is a related site just outside of Southampton water, on Bramble Bank: bramblemet. (note: at the time of posting these sites are down, probably due to unprecedented load from the Round the Island race this weekend)

Check out my previous posts on weather

I joined Design Haus as Technical Lead & User-Experience consultant since March 2007. I am responsible for the delivery of web projects and for providing a fully user-centred design approach.

Find out more about us here:
» www.dhaus.com/meet-us/default.asp

Don Norman has a knack for observing the world around him, pointing out the crazy things that silently frustrate us daily. His books are absolutely fascinating — I had always wondered why the knobs on a cooker are never arranged in the same spatial pattern as the burners they control. But why are things so complex?

Don's recent essay points out how we can invest in design and technology to create more intelligent systems that remove the burden from accomplishing a task, to create a simple system with few controls.The problem is that on a shop floor, when a potential customer is evaluating a product, the fact is that features sell — why pay more for a device with fewer buttons even if the device actually does more and is easier to use?
» www.jnd.org/dn.mss/simplicity_is_highly.html

I have been reading up on capacity planning and load testing for IIS based web applications, I found the following resources which I think useful to share. My recent training in ITIL IT SMF has provided a useful and standard vocabulary to the techniques that I have practised over the years as a web developer. The following resources can be filed under Capacity Management, one of the five components in the ITIL Service Delivery model.
» Service Management Functions high level overview: Capacity Management
» Introduction to Capacity Management: summary and implementation plan
» IIS 6 web server scalability resources on Microsoft TechNet
» Case Study: Scaling an ASP.NET web application on IIS 6 — Illustrates how to monitor and tune IIS 6.0 for improved performance and scalability

Performance optimization and capacity planning for Microsoft Content Management Server
I am responsible for two large MCMS websites. The first section of this report shows how to achieve optimal performance from an MCMS site by making use of caching, and by analyzing, scaling, and tuning the site to eliminate any site bottlenecks. The second section covers capacity planning—how to plan for, estimate, and manage the maximum anticipated load capacity for your site.
» www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/cms/plan/cmsoptim.mspx

This is a work in progress, more resources soon...

The domains of web accessibility and web usability often overlap, given the need to communicate effectively with the widest appropriate audience. In march 2006 the Disability Rights Commission produced a document called PAS-78, which provides accessibility guidance for people who commission websites.

The document provides information in a fairly non-technical manner and covers how disabled people use the web, defining an accessibility policy, technology (CSS, scripting, plugins), accessibility testing and maintenance, and contracting web design and accessibility testing services. It also covers the W3C guidelines, and provides advice on involving disabled people in the development phase.

I recommend obtaining a copy of the report, and gaining a working knowledge of the recommendations if you are actively involved in web accessibility and usability. The document is now free to download from the DRC.

Download the PAS-78:
» www.drc.org.uk/library/website_accessibility_guidance/pas_78.aspx

An overview of the report:
» www.accessibility101.org.uk/pas78.htm
» www.bsi-global.com/ICT/PAS78/index.xalter