Friday, May 27th, 2011
 The most important element of any web page is the content. Let’s face it: content is king. You can have the best designed site in the world, but if you have nothing worth reading or listening to, nobody is going to care. Worse, if you do have something worth saying, but nobody understands it, it’s all going to waste.
Watch what you say
We don’t want to give you a grammar lesson, but we do want to emphasize corect speling and proper grammar. If you’re readres can’t undrstand what your saying, their not going to waist they’re time on your site. Its probably a good idea too brush up in your English skills every so often.
Having said all that, here’s a pop quiz: the last paragraph is riddled with errors – how many can you spot? Stay concise We admit, our writers sometimes have a tendency to get a bit wordy. That’s why, after writing something, we always ask ourselves if we can say the same thing in half as many words. The heading really says it all though, so as Forrest Gump says, “that’s all I have to say about that.”
Avoid Jargon
Unless you’re writing a technical report, there’s probably no need to include technical jargon in your writing. Here’s a tip: if you don’t use the word in your regular conversations, it probably doesn’t belong in your writing.
Give them bite size chunks
We try to keep our paragraphs down to five sentences or less, but we don’t really count the number periods we tack on. Instead we try to limit our paragraphs to one thought each.
For this paragraph, for example, the main point is to keep paragraphs short. Since we want to emphasize the idea of having one thought per paragraph, we’re dedicating a separate paragraph for it.
The idea is to allow readers to skim through your page and still allow them to pick up the gist of what you’re trying to say. Splitting different thoughts into different paragraphs does just that.
Use your head(ings)
This ties in with the previous point in that it also allows readers to skim through your content and pick up important points. Using headings allow you to clearly define different ideas and organize your content. Using heading tags (<h1>, <h2>, etc.) lets you hit two birds with one stone. It not only organizes your content for your readers, it gives you the added benefit of optimizing for search engines.
Don’t get too bold
Highlighting everything highlights nothing. The point of highlighting something, whether by italicizing it, making it bold, changing its color, or anything else, is to make it stand out from the rest of the page. If you highlight too many things, they all just start blending into each other, and none of them stand out anymore.
Talk with me
We stated in one of the points above “if you don’t use the word in your regular conversations, it probably doesn’t belong in your writing.” We try to apply this idea, not just to the words we choose, but to the general tone of our writing. We don’t want to lecture you or preach to you – we want to have a conversation with you.
Yes, there are some cases where a conversational tone doesn’t really fit with the content. For the most part, however, a conversational tone is what engages your readers. Speaking (or writing) using your own voice tells your readers that there is a real person behind the words on the screen, and that makes them more likely to connect with you.
This is the fifth and final installment of Pepper’s Web Usability series. You can check out the other posts in the links below. We’d like to know before you go though, how do you make sure you get your point across? Share your answers in the comments.
- Keep it simple: the basic philosophy for web usability
- Don’t be a snob: make sure that everybody can access your site
- Identify yourself: don’t make it hard to figure out who’s behind your site
- Show me around: make it easy to navigate your site
- Say it, and say it well: make sure you get your message across
Posted in Uncategorized | 11 Comments »
Friday, May 20th, 2011
Technorati is a real-time search engine concentrated on tracking blogs. This will not only drive more traffic to your blog, but also help position you as an authority in your respective field. So, if you’d like to get more exposure for your blog, make sure to get it listed there.
It took us a while to figure it out ourselves, so I thought it might help if we show you how to do it step-by-step.
So here goes . . .
1. Sign up for an account in Technorati.
2. Once you’ve activated your account, go to your profile by clicking your name on the upper right-hand corner.
3. You can customize your account by adding a profile image and entering additional information about you.
4. Just below the option where you add an image, there’s a section that says ‘my claimed blogs’. You need to enter the URL of your blog in the field and then you also need to add some information such as the RSS URL, meta-tags, keywords, etc.
5. Once you have finished filling out those fields, the site will then advise you to wait for a few days as they verify your blog.
6. Aside from that, you will also receive an email that will provide you a unique code that you need to include in a new article that needs to be posted in your own blog.
*This step is essential as this will be their basis before they start verifying your blog. You can remove the post once verification is completed. Here’s mine – B3FQRMYKMRHF
7. Check back with the site and go back to your profile and click on ‘Check Claim’ to tell Technorati that your blog is ready for verification.
8. Once done, you need to wait for a month or two to have your blog verified.
That’s all. Now let’s see how long it will really take to get our blog verified.
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, May 11th, 2011
The key to success is finding what you love to do and to making a career out of it. It’s definitely easier said than done. There are people who took years taking up medicine, law or a master’s degree, putting all of their efforts and time into honing their craft, only to get into a job outside those fields. Clearly, figuring out and going after one’s passion, plus making money out of it, is not as simple as ABC. It requires thorough assessment, honesty to one’s self and focus.
The Right Way
Even professionals or businessmen who already have a steady source of income still second-guess whether they have taken the right career track. When they discover that they have been pursuing a career opposite of their realized interests and skills, they go back to zero to start pursuing another which they guess is their true passion. If you want to waste your life in a series of trial-and-error, feel free to do so.
Meanwhile, if you want to make the best decision for your life while you still have plenty of time to start and rebuild your career, invest in self-assessment. There are several self-assessment tools available online for free. All you need to do is focus, contemplate and stay honest as you answer each of the guide questions. Self-assessment can either reinforce what you already believe your passion is or can also help discover more and new things about yourself. These will give you a clearer direction on the career you should pursue.
Zeal that Radiates
When you do what you love doing, people see it through you. Days of pretending to be busy at work or settling for mediocrity will be over because your passion drives you to give your best all the time. If you love making customers happy and satisfied, you find joy in attending to their requests and fixing their concerns immediately. If you find fulfillment in seeing your designs become reality, you’ll do everything to impress a client so they will agree to construct or fabricate your design. If you like the challenge of convincing either a crowd or a decision maker to purchase or invest, you won’t go wrong when it comes to sales, public speaking or presentations.
Essentially, going after your passion is tantamount to feeling without any doubt that you are on the right track. Such an assurance pushes you to do whatever it takes to achieve the goal. All your actions will revolve around it. Your engagement and drive will lead you to always go for the extra mile. In addition, as you better yourself, you also inspire other people to work passionately.
Genuine Happiness
More than being effective in your job or being able to maximize the potential of your business, being passionate makes you happy. If we all pursue our passion, no one will feel like they’re being bossed around. Why? Because there is no need for it, you feel driven to produce results simply because you want to. You need not be forced or pressured because you already feel rewarded just by enjoying what you do.
In addition, being passionate also means that you bank on your interests and constantly improve your skills. Driven by passion, you look for more efficient ways to fulfill your tasks. You look for opportunities to educate yourself because you want to be the best in the field you are passionate about. Should there be problems, you don’t feel burdened, but instead, challenged – and you know that the taste of success will be sweeter afterwards. Passion keeps the fire burning and no hurdle can ever bring that down.
As H. Jackson Browne said, “Find a job you like and add five days to every week”. Why settle for a job that only pays the bills? If you pursue your passion, not only will you find work enjoyable, monetary compensation should come easy. Clients always look for service providers (i.e. photographers, writers, managers, coordinators, assistants, etc.) who are passionate about what they do as shown in their work output. If you want to be compensated and regarded as an expert in your chosen field, there is only one thing to do – build a career that is close to your heart and use that to add value not just to yourself but most importantly to the people around you.
Posted in Life Management | 14 Comments »
Monday, May 9th, 2011
 Hey gang, we’re back, and this time we’re tackling another aspect of web usability. This week’s topic: navigation and information retrieval – specifically, how to make that simple and easy. Before we get to that though, let’s discuss something pretty important: the fold.
Stay above the fold
The fold is the imaginary line where your web page meets the bottom of your browser window. What your readers see on your page without scrolling down is above the fold. Anything that requires scrolling before showing up is below.
Different experts may disagree on the origins of the term, but we like the one that compares it to a newspaper. The top half of the front page is the very first thing you’ll see on a paper, and this is where you find the most important items: the name of the paper, of course; the headlines, weather updates, and other things the paper wants to highlight. Items on the bottom half, below the fold, sometimes get lost or just glossed over.
On your web page, items that show up immediately on your web page attract more attention. The links up here – the ones your readers see immediately – are the ones that your readers are most likely to click through. This is where you want to keep the things you want to highlight, like your navigation bar, subscription options, and recent comments, among others.
Don’t get me lost
Since we mentioned it already, let’s talk about navigation. Some of the things most websites have in common are: a link to the home page, an about page with information on the owner of the site, and a contact page. Though some try to come up with creative names for these links, they are usually labeled “home,” “about,” and “contact,” respectively. The main reason they’re labeled this way is to avoid confusion – not everybody will understand, for example, that “Take me back to Kansas” means take me home, or “Gimme a holler” means contact me.
On a similar vein, many sites use the main banner or header lead back home. Clicking on that blue pepper up top, for example, will send you back to our home page.
Walk with me
You don’t want to limit readers to just a few pages on your site, do you? To help them navigate around your site, you need to give readers an idea of what else you have to offer. One suggestion is to put a list of related topics at the bottom of each post or article. You don’t have to do this manually, by the way – this function might be built into your CMS already.
Another way to help your readers get around is to add links for your categories, tags, and archived posts. This helps them find other articles related to the page they’re on, or quickly find posts from a specific time frame. Of course, another great navigation aid is a search bar – they’re often (though not always) found on the upper right corner of a page.
Put up some signs
Yet another way to help your readers navigate your site is by adding descriptions to your page titles. Our page title, for example, suggests what you can do (or what we want you to do) if you need an assistant. Indirectly, it also describes our company and what we do.
Adding descriptions to your titles tells your readers about you even before they land on your page. Your page titles show up in search-engine results pages (or SERPs, as they’re commonly called) – having a description there means your readers know a bit more about you immediately, making them more likely to click through.
Lay out a map
You can’t plan every single action your readers make on your site, but you can definitely make it easy for them to get around. Even better, you can nudge them to certain pages by highlighting certain paths or locations on your site.
The main point is to help your readers find what they want on your site. The navigation options, archives, search bar, and other elements on your site serve as a map that helps your readers get around your site.
This part four of Pepper’s Web Usability series. You can check out the other posts in the links below. Before you hop away though, we’d like to know: how do you make sure your readers don’t have trouble getting around your site? Share your ideas in the comments section.
- Keep it simple: the basic philosophy for web usability
- Don’t be a snob: make sure that everybody can access your site
- Identify yourself: don’t make it hard to figure out who’s behind your site
- Show me around: make it easy to navigate your site
- Say it, and say it well: make sure you get your message across
Tags: fold, navigation, pepper, web usability
Posted in Creative Toolbox | 2 Comments »
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