weblog

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um, i got ANOTHER new job

Sorry if I don’t post for awhile.

Sorta comes with the territory of getting a NEW JOB. Yeah, I work for Xeno Media, as a web producer.

I won’t be posting much these days, though that doesn’t mean I’m in stuck the dark ages (just stuck in an antiquated CMS). Thanks for sticking with me.

Posted by Jesse on 09/01 at 02:55 AM

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on almost failing a web skills test

On a recent job interview (that ended well) I was asked to complete a web skills test. They wanted me to bring in my own laptop and create a webpage “from scratch”.

They gave me a .jpg and told me to turn it into a webpage. Oh boy.

First off, I hardly ever code websites on “my own laptop”. Yes, I love OSX and Coda but since I work in Windows and code w/ DW, it’s not that familiar. (Yes, I admit, I got the Textmate program with an educational discount.) Secondly, who knows the perfect page structure right off the bat? I don’t. When given a design, do you immediately know the perfect semantic page structure? No. You don’t.

It comes to you as you work with the page, as you move it around. What you thought were the headings were REALLY list items as you went along. And of course you have to change the wrapper ID.

As you work with a layout (or design) you change the code as you go along. It’s called coding a web page. So getting back to the skills test…

Yes, I thought I blew it. Yes, I STILL got the job. It goes to show you that if you know the basic structure of an HTML document, you’re worth hiring… 

Posted by Jesse on 09/01 at 02:25 AM

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Confessions of an (uncool) Front-End Web Developer

I admit it - I’m not a cool web developer. I’m not into the latest and greatest trends, and I’m hesitant to adopt the most recent approaches to communicating on the web. Here’s how I know:

1) I don’t tweet. Yeah, you read that right. I don’t get Twitter, and I think the service is highly annoying, to say the least. 140 characters to express yourself? Puh-leeze. I write this one off as a mindless distraction that’s perfect for our contemporary age.

2) I don’t think Wordpress is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Sure, it’s amazing what an open-source blogging application can morph into, but I don’t think Wordpress is the Swiss-Army knives of content management systems (nor do I think that ExpressionEngine/Joomla/Drupal/[insert your favorite] fills that role either). Different strokes for different folks, so you gotta assess the business need before signing on.

3) I don’t maintain a Flickr stream. Nope, no photos from me. Sure, I know how to operate a digital camera but I’m not about to post pics from my most recent vacation as inspiration for anyone. I’m not a photographer. I refuse to clutter the internet landscape with my photographic mishaps. Hence, I’m decidely uncool.

4) I’m not a Flash guru. In fact, honestly, Flash makes me dry heave. Really. I’ve no desire to spread Flash around the Inter-webs, and that’s why I’ve done so little with it. Of course I can use the ubiquitous swfobject javascript to embed Flash players and the like, but that doesn’t mean I want too.

5) I think web fonts are kinda lame. I know, we’ve been stuck with the same basic eight fonts for the past umpteen years, but I’m still convinced that unless the web content is worth it, it doesn’t matter what font-family you go with. Really. If you’ve got nothing to say, it doesn’t make any difference if you use a fancy font or not - it’s still vacuous when all is said and done. Even if it’s pretty.

I’m not a Flash guru. In fact, honestly, Flash makes me dry heave.

If that wasn’t bad enough, I have these annoying tendencies as well:

1) I think web accessibility is important and worth striving for. Yeah, I read Roger Johansson’s 456 Berea Street blog and I make no apologies for that fact. As a wise coworker once remarked, web accessibility is only going to get more important so I might as well get used to it.

2) In my book, web standards are still relevant. In fact, I’m so taken with web standards that I don’t know how to build a site using tables - I’m stuck. I offered to maintain a non-profit women’s recovery website ONLY if I could recode it using CSS, and they obliged. I think tables are only good for displaying tabular data. Yeah, I’m not “hip”. UNSUBSCRIBE.

3) I still think a website should make sense if the stylesheet is removed. Yeah, I went there. Disable the CSS and your website should still make sense. Use headings appropriately. Label lists accordingly. Let the content breathe. Uh-oh, what would happen if images were turned off on your website? Could Google still make sense of it?

4) The semantic web is operative. Let your divs and classes declare what they do. Who knows? You may not be the one who maintains the website after you leave - do a favor for the next gal and name your divs and classes semantically.

5) I think JavaScript is overrated. Of course, at knifepoint I’d take jQuery over Flash any day, but if given a choice, JS would be relegated to the periphery. You should be able to disable JS and your website should still make sense. I love jQuery (Prototype, ah, not so much) but it shouldn’t be the central feature to your web presence.

Yeah, according to these counts I’m an uncool web developer. And I’m proud of it. How are you uncool?

Posted by Jesse on 06/04 at 02:12 AM

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Writing a College Web Style Guide

I did my master’s thesis on creating a web style guide for a higher education institution. The following is the abstract from my thesis:

This project describes both the process used to create a web style guide for a higher education institution as well as the final product. I established the value of a web style guide, consulted published literature on best practice for style guide creation, evaluated web style guides from around the country, and formed a content-based method of creating a web style guide. Based on this process, I recommend that web style guides should combine the editorial and technical standards of a website, to better reflect the changing nature of web communications. Technical communicators who use this process will have a web style guide that can help their website earn higher search engine results, satisfy federal and state accessibility requirements, and better serve their end users by making information easier to find.

Curious? Read what I have to say. Creating a College Web Style Guide

Sorry, I did too much work on this for it to lapse into relative obscurity. Yeah, I did RESEARCH. Read it and weep.

Posted by Jesse on 06/01 at 03:28 AM

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