July 2006

Today I’m going to talk about the holy grail of design, the one element that you absolutely must nail if you want your Web site to be effective and useful for your readers. By the time you finish reading this post, you’ll know what the most important element of design really is, and you’ll also know how to determine the efficacy of any Web site thanks to your keen expertise.

What, then, is the most important element of design, and how can you become an expert after reading just a few paragraphs?

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When designing or re-designing a Web site, I can’t help but examine the Information Architecture (IA) of the site that’s on the chopping block. Typically, I make a few fundamental changes to the way information is displayed, and one thing I’ve noticed is that I trend towards bringing the newest content to the forefront. I’m sure some of you are reading this and thinking “well, duh,” but I’m actually writing this today to suggest that it may not be quite as duh as you might think…

Thanks to the widespread growth of RSS as a means of content propagation, blog developers need to start thinking outside the traditional architectural box, which usually consists of uploading a CMS and not giving it much more thought. At this point in time, the widespread solution for blog IA is content-centric; however, as we begin to adapt to changing standards, I believe that we’ll learn to present content in ways that are far more user-centric.

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It’s late. It’s 1:34 am - the twilight of a Sunday morning here in Kentucky - and I really have no business being up. Problem is, I’m heading down to Orlando on a flight at 7:00 am, and I’m trying to finish up all the crap that I didn’t do today. Apparently I was too busy playing Tiger Woods 2006 on the XBOX 360, but we don’t have to go telling people that now, do we? Oh, and did I mention the bit of schizophrenia I develop in the wee hours of the morn?

Anyway, I thought you all might get a kick out of this letter I left my housesitter, so without further ado, here’s my thoughts on how to get results while you’re out of town…

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