WEB TYPOGRAPHY

As Wikipedia states: Web typography refers to the use of fonts on the Web.

It's funny how I personally did not pay attention to this until I actually read all about it and how important web typography really is. Typography is an important factor in creating a great web design. Good typography will lead the reader across the page according to the level of importance of the different text and images. It can also help readers to connect text with images, and headlines with content. For an effective design, a designer needs to make good artistic choices that are complimentary. Another thing I noticed based on the readings was the bigger the Type, the better! Large type will draw the attention of readers to it. It will also place emphasis on the hierarchy of the contentdue to the contrast when comparing it to the smaller text around it. Of course not to use the largest font size and take over the entire page with one word-but rather getting creative with the big typography. Here is a good example:

http://www.brucemaudesign.com/ie6.php

Another point was the importance of managing the white space as this is a form of visual relief.

Here is an example:

http://www.nest-living.com/

Designing with Web Standards

What are web standards?

According to http://webstandardsgroup.org/standards/ , “The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), along with other groups and standards bodies, has established technologies for creating and interpreting web-based content. These technologies, which we call “web standards,” are carefully designed to deliver the greatest benefits to the greatest number of web users while ensuring the long-term viability of any document published on the Web.”

If sites are built and designed with web standards, the cost of production is simplified and lowered when delivering sites that are accessible to more people and more types of Internet devices. The sites built under these standards will maintain functioning appropriately as traditional desktop browsers advance, and as new Internet devices are brought into the market.


Benefits of using web standards?

There are many advantages to utilizing Web Standards when designing websites. I came across a website that had some pretty interesting information regarding Web Standards. “Did you know that websites designed around CSS and XHTML use as much as 60% less markup and code per page on average? Did you know that your sites run better, faster, smoother and are more usable overall? These are just a few of the advantages. By using Web Standards and the practices behind them, you can greatly improve the overall quality of your web sites over time.”
A site that has been built to web standards has many benefits that include:

• Better Accessibility
• Better SEO (Search Engine Optimization and Ranking)
• Less bandwidth intense
• Future-proof
• Run better, faster, smoother and are more usable
• Extensibility
• Maintenance - easier
• Compatibility with newer browsers

Information Architecture

According to http://webdesign.about.com/od/informationarchitecture/Information_Architecture.htm, Information architecture is a process for describing and classifying information. On Web pages it is often used to plan the structure and navigation of an entire site. A simplified view of an information architecture is the taxonomy of a Web site. Information architects help plan and maintain the structure of a Web site.

I was particularly interested in finding out more about site redirects and did some research on how that would work with IA. In reality, there is a true art to appropriately redirecting expired, non-existent, or relocated pages. According to some research that I did, you want to utilize 301 permanent redirects in the following case scenarios:

1) Where the page has moved to another new location
2) Where it is possible for visitors to be confused or frustrated by a 404 error page
3) Where an additional page matches the content of the expired/deleted page

There are both good and bad uses of redirects…
But there is one key question to always keep in mind: Is it good for the visitor? In many cases, 301′ing an entire site is NOT good for the visitor but it definitely is great for the site owner desiring to cash in on accrued PageRanks. As a common rule, permanently redirecting a site may not benefit you as much as you would think it would. It’s better to test by initially redirecting a few pages, and at times it’s best to leave the site as is for a specific duration with a message about potential changes. Depending on the situation, it may even make sense to leave the site as a whole and build it out separately.

WEB WRITING!!!!

What is a good Web writer responsible for??? In a nutshell-a web writer needs to keep the site simple, easy to follow and easy to navigate for the users while at the same time you make sure you are providing good content. As users of the web, we have to admit that we rarely go to web pages and read them word-by-word. We actually scan them and filter out certain words or even sentences. Chapter 5 of Interact with Web Standards gets into details and some very helpful hints on effective web writing. Some of the steps that Web writer’s can employ on web pages in order for website readers to interact with scannable text are:

• Highlighting Keywords


• Using meaningful sub-headings


• Using lists in bullet format


• Not overwhelming the readers with a lot of information about different topics in the same paragraph. Keep it down to one idea per paragraph


• Inverted Pyramid style (starting with conclusion)

And the list continues ofcourse…. I came across a website that had mentioned the KISS technique! … Which stands for "Keep it short and simple". An important web-writing tool is to keep the writing clear and concise. Using complicated sentences and longer words should be avoided for sure.

It is important for the web users to enjoy all aspects of a site. Everything- inclusive of features, accessibility, colors - and of course, great content. These will ensure great user experience and in return , repeat traffic for websites. We need to keep in mind that printed material is totally different than what we enjoy to see on our computer screens. Therefore, with the right team and tools in place, and of course a great process -- a company is on the right path to have a well designed site and in return, more website traffic !

ITIL

1. An overview image of ITIL.






The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is the most widely accepted approach to IT service management in the world. ITIL describes how IT resources should be organized to deliver business value, documenting the processes, functions and roles of IT Service Management (ITSM).ITIL is supported by accredited training organizations, implementation and assessment tools.

2. A more detailed summary of ITIL Service Desk



The ITIL Service Desk is the very first contact the organization's users have with IT Services. The Service Desk is a single point of contact for end users who need anything from IT. The Service Desk handles day-to-day customer issues, end-user calls, and other issues. Not only can a Service Desk handle incidents, problems and questions, but a Service Desk can also provide an interface for other activities such as customer change requests, billing and availability management. The Service Desk has great strategic importance. It represents the interests of the customer to the rest of the IT organization, and is the most important function in an organization for many customers.

Here are a few benefits of a service desk:

• Provides a single point of contact for customers and users
• Deals with many customer queries without needing to contact specialist personnel
• Handles all incoming calls and only escalates them to the second or third tier support when necessary
• Informs users about the supported products and services to which they are entitled
• Ensures that users do not have to search endlessly for a solution
• Ensures accessibility of the IT organization
• Is consistent and efficient in all customer contacts
• Assists in defining the response and solution times that will come into effect in the event of a service interruption

And the list goes on….



3. A profile of an ITIL consulting company - ECS



I came across a company names ECS- Enterprise Consulting services. Basically ECS converts ITIL theory into practice and implements strategies that create solid benefits that can be measured. Consulting services have been fine tuned as a result of hands on implementation engagements at enterprise level companies. As their website states “ … ECS brings proven methodologies, templates, and best practice to the table - eliminating weeks of costly project start up and discovery effort. Our PMO approach drives clear consensus on strategy and operational improvement solutions, reinforced by clearly articulated due diligence and project deliverables. Vendor neutrality assures unbiased recommendations, tool selection and contract/SOW preparation.”
Here is a Flowchart showing the ITIL framework ECS follows:

Some reference clients from their website:

• Bausch & Lomb
• Constellation Brands
• EnergyEast
• Excellus BlueCross
• Ontario County Government
• Wegmans Food Markets


4. NUMARA-->ITIL software tool

The ITIL Software tool I looked into was called Numara Footprints. Numara Footprints is cheap and implantation is fast.

• Numara has a "multi-project" design, and this enables managing service desk processes from a single integrated platform – minimizing overhead and increasing service delivery quality.
• Numara FootPrints puts instant changes to service management team, not costly programmers or consultants without interrupting the business.

Software Design Patterns!

Who is Christopher Alexander Anyway?

He was an architect that came up with the concept of patterns. Using the patterns, he would design buildings, roadways etc. Around the year 1990, his concept of patterns was applied to object oriented software design. Eventually, the object-oriented folks realized the influence and importance of patterns and therefore started writing books, articles and workshops to expand on patterns. Finally, with the “Design Patterns” book, patterns gained more acceptance within the object-oriented world.

Pattern?

According to www.handbookofsoftwarearchitecture.com, Christopher Alexander defines a pattern as "a three part rule, which expresses a relation between a certain context, a problem, and a solution". Patterns have many benefits. For example it can be viewed as a way to deal with a recurring problem. Additionally concepts get named and become easier to discuss with a formal written pattern name. As I was reading different sources to write my blog, I came across a good example about pattern languages. I loved the following example I found on a pattern website: “Just as spoken language give people the ability to create an infinite variety of sentences, pattern languages give people the power to create an infinite variety of document types. We just need to create a common vocabulary so we can make useful sentences.”

Patterns are usually divided in the following three groups:
· Creational – patterns that help create (”new”) objects. The Singleton is an example of popular creational pattern.
· Structural –patterns that help with how classes are composed to form larger subsystems.
· Behavior – patterns that help with the inner workings of classes such as algorithms and the responsibility between classes. Template Method is an example of a behavioral pattern.
Some examples of architectural patterns include Layers, MVC, Blackboard System, Peer-to-Peer, Naked objects and etc.

Time for BlackBoard Pattern Example!





I decided to look into the Blackboard architecture pattern. So as mentioned earlier, a pattern is a context, problem and solution. We will follow these in the Blackboard example below:

Context: We have agents that are dedicated to execute a specific subtask of a larger overall task. A medium needs to be established so that it would allow the subtasks to monitor each other and build on their joint progress.

Problem: How are we going to ensure the unity of a group of particular agents?
Solution: With a blackboard, agents can add data, which would allow them to pledge for data changes in their area of interest. Agents can also update data and erase it from the blackboard. The agents continually monitor the blackboard for changes and signal when they want to add, erase or update data.
When multiple agents want to respond to a change, a supervisor agent decides which specialist agent may make a modification to the blackboard.

Here is a role diagram:

Here is another Diagram showing the Interactions that take place between the participants of the Blackboard Pattern:

During my research, I also came across this blackboard example; basically the system supports the design of a hierarchical controller that provides facilities for adaptation, supervision and task planning.

And Last but not least go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_pattern_(computer_science) for additional information on patterns. I find wikipedia extremely useful when it comes to research.

OSLO

I had never heard of " OSLO" until we were asked to write a blog about it. Nothing is better than going to the direct source I guess! Here is what the Microsoft.com site describes it as:
"Oslo" is the code name for Microsoft’s next generation modeling platform. It consists of a modeling language, codename "M", a modeling tool, codename "Quadrant", a repository and a set of models that target specific domains.

Based on my findings, Here are a few good things Oslo offers:

Creates applications directly from models
Makes development alot easier (BPMN & UML)
Easier human interaction with data
Fills in the gap between Business Analysts and IT

What is the"M" Language:

*Language for working with data and building domain models.
Consists of:
*MGraph defines values
*MSchema defines constraints over data.

*Per the MSDN website: “M” is designed to allow users to write down what they want from their data without having to specify how those requirements are met by a specific technology or platform.

Overall I think this is a great tool. It defintely gives more power to the end user and kind of even eliminates the need for developers. With Microsoft having their label behind it, I am sure it will be a success. We will wait and see :)