Jonathan and Lisa Price have a nice article on writing FAQ and covered many points that we may not think about. For instance, if you have a large site — you might want to show the FAQ or Help that’s relevant to the page users are on rather than give them the whole thing to dig through. Many software applications do this — give you the Help based on the window you’re viewing.

I believe FAQ are best served when all of the questions and answers appear in one page — unless it’s ridiculously long and neds breaking up. The reason for this is because some users will use their own browser’s search instead of a site’s search — they want to find a keyword on the current page instead of browse the whole site.

Add items to the FAQ as you get e-mails from users, see questions popping up in the forums or on the Internet — don’t assume people will find their way to the other sites that answer the questions… do people a favor by offering everything in one place. Users appreciate it and it never hurts to go the extra mile… actually, they expect you to have complete answers. Hey, it saves you time as people won’t contact you if they can find the answers on their own. Of course, not everyone thinks to check the FAQ — but every bit helps.

Notice I never used the “s” in FAQ as in FAQs? Skipping it was hard, but I learned to just write “FAQ” because “Q” means “questions.” Why write an FAQ if you only list one question?

Designing Web sites for events requires a different thought process and approach than a regular Web site. Of course, every design project should be unique, but events have features in common that the design project should discuss in every project. Such common features include:

• Home page: Event name, date, location and quick explanation of what it’s about and who it is for.
• Travel: Event hotel with special rates (if available), hotel recommendations including how far they’re located from the event and whether an airport shuttle is available (if the city has a subway or other transportation — provide this information).
• Schedule
• Some events require tickets for showings, seminars, panels, etc. One superb site made it possible to select the classes you wanted to attend and get the tickets for them all at once by having boxes next to them. Participants select the boxes and submit the form.
• Ability to buy or reserve tickets to the event itself. sxsw, which includes photos on its badges, lets you upload pictures for the badges.
• Vendors/Exhibits: Provide the details vendors need to sign up, get their stuff to the city, and so on.
• Having links on the schedule for more details (speaker bios, topic details, location, etc.). Having the title of the panel or whatnot and the speakers don’t give enough information (unless the event is far off).
• Accommodations
• Food and drinks: Will the event have accessible food and drinks? I like to have water with me at all times. I want to know ahead of time whether I need to bring my own water or if I can get it there. Can you even bring food/drinks from outside?
• Wheelchair, hearing impaired, visually impaired, etc. accommodations. Anything you can provide regarding these accommodations is always helpful. For example, a Dallas theater has laptops available for the deaf, which contain the show’s script. But it doesn’t say what you need to do to check it out. Most conferences and events are exhausting for me as a deaf person — so I’m less inclined to attend events — but if I see some accommodations to make things easier and more enjoyable, it’ll increase the likelihood I’ll attend.
• Bathrooms. Save time and frustration by giving people an idea of where the bathrooms are. Go the extra mile and tell them “Get up anytime … when you gotta go… you gotta go.”
• Maps and directions. Make sure the map you use or link to is accurate! At a recent family event, the street didn’t appear on one popular map Web site.
• City info: Participants may want to explore the city during down time. Make it easier and a better experience by providing:
• List of recommended restaurants nearby and restaurants that are unique to the city that may not be close, but worth the visit. Don’t simply point to the city’s guide web site — there is too much info there and they won’t know what’s good and what’s not good.
• List of places to visit and anything that’s unique to the city.
• Shopping! People want to buy stuff to remember their visit and surprise their loved ones with souvenirs. Plenty of “baloney” places exist to trap tourists — show your participants where the real goods are.

Nice to haves… depending on the event

• Merchandise (aka “swag”): Event shirts and goodies popular? Save time, lines and frustrations by selling merchandise online. Hey, people can wear them before and at the event. More promotion!
• Updates during the event: Have a section or a blog… whatever is easiest for posting regular updates. Updates can include news, changes to the schedule or location, notes, presentations, etc. Make them available online, through feeds and provide a computer where people can check the updates as not everyone wants to bring a laptop.
• Post-event notes: Podcasts, notes, speaker presentations, transcripts. Anything you can provide will make the participants more appreciative and more likely to come back or talk about it.
• Feeds and files for downloading to MP3, handhelds, smartphones so participants can carry the info with them. I can’t remember how they did it — but sxsw made it possible for attendees to download info and schedules to their devices AT the event. These should be easy to browse and not graphics heavy. If you create maps or something with graphics, create a separate feed or file so only those with capabilities can access them and the others don’t have to deal with slow download times.

Did I miss anything? What do you wish you had known before going to a conference or event?

I’m the lucky webmaster for three PTA web sites and spent much of the weekend converting one to Movable Type (MT) and starting a new one for Cub Scouts. Thankfully, a friend of mine stepped up to take care of the webmaster role for the latter site, but I told her she would have an easier time managing it using a blogging tool like MT.

So I spent the weekend drafting a site so the committee could discuss the new design at its meeting yesterday. These organizations consist of volunteers, so to ensure an effective web site — I follow two rules:

1. Easy to update.

2. Easy to use.

Since my friend and I make up the audience for these web sites, we ask each other questions when trying them out. Once the design is ready, we ask other friends in the organization to look at the site to see how easy (or not) they are to use.

My experience with these organizations is we don’t know what we want the design to look like, but we know what information needs to appear on the site. So that gives us free reign (not that I like that). These sites don’t have many graphics since we rely on free templates to build them. None of us has the time to design something from scratch to use with the blogging tool.

I gave my friend a choice of Blogger or Movable Type (while WordPress does great work, I find it too difficult for those not familiar with blogging or coding). This provided a good opportunity to see what others — who have never used a blogging tool — find easier to use. Although Blogger was easy, it offered little in terms of control and templates. That’s OK for a lot of people, just not for our needs. She chose MT. Here’s the formula for creating a usable, easy to maintain web site for organizations and personal use:

* Selected a free template from The Style Archive that best matched our needs.

* Installed and tweaked the template and its graphics files.

* Added Google Calendar‘s code so the calendar appears within the blog.

* Signed up for a BubbleShare account for photo albums since BubbleShare lets you display an album within the blog without going to the site (Google’s only works with Blogger and Yahoo! doesn’t let you put the album within an entry).

Typically, it takes no more than a day to follow these steps to create a full web site. However, the original design I picked for one site had messy CSS and was more trouble than it was worth. Besides, I didn’t like what I did with the header. When I switched to another design, it went much better.

Some complained the sites needed more graphics and point to another local school’s PTA web site. When I checked out the web site, I couldn’t find anything without a lot of hunting plus the design was inconsistent. From what I could tell, the site wasn’t easy to update. As volunteers, we don’t have as much time as we’d like to update the site, so the last thing we need is infrequent updates. The site is pointless as parents won’t be motivated to check the site regularly. Thus, those two rules guided the design process. Besides — it would be impossible to please everyone.

I’d love to share the sites so you could see they don’t look identical to their original templates, but the images would be full of “blacked out” content to keep the organizations under wraps and pointless to share.

“Forgot password?” should be instant. The site should simply request the user to enter the email address and immediately let the user know if the email address is in the system or not. Otherwise, you could lose out on ordering opportunities.

We tried to order dinner online and Paul (SO) forgot his password. He entered the email address and the response page said it was mailed. Nothing came in after 10 minutes of checking. He tried a second time and still no avail. The place’s competitor also has online ordering and we could easily switch our plans.

Another time I was trying to order an item. I registered and tried to purchase the item. But when I signed back in (after not receiving an email within ten minutes), my account didn’t exist. The site would not accept any of the information I entered.

The next time, I registered and confirmed it worked by logging out and back in. Then I tried to order the item again… no luck. Moral: Make sure your order forms and forget password process work.

Giving up, I emailed the company (it had the best deal) and got a reply a few days later suggesting I call. I wrote back saying I prefer to order online because I’m hard of hearing. No reply yet. Another lesson: Reply to customer emails within 24 hours with the only exception being when the office isn’t open. Lesson #2: Offer the customer multiple ways to contact your company.

When I posted the entry about designing a logo, I didn’t expect to get the kind of emails I did about designing on specs. I didn’t think about the issue with such “contests” where a business posts its requirements and offers a set price. People would respond with their creations and then the business picks the winner. The winner gets a few bucks and the business a new logo, design, template and whatnot.

Since I’m not a designer and don’t participate in design discussions, I wasn’t aware of the controversy behind spec work. However, I do know that it is controversial in the writing world. Some businesses post a spec job where the writers create a direct marketing campaign. The selected piece gets paid and the others get nothing except wasted time or a potential addition to their portfolios depending on the quality of the work.

But those who think spec work is OK say that it’s a way for beginners to enter the field. There’s one major difference between design and writing specs — design requires software and the people designing the logo could be doing it on pirated software. Is that something a business wants to associate itself with? You might think “What you don’t know won’t hurt you…” But when you hire and work with a specific designer, you know you’re working with a professional. Software is just one of many issues with spec design.

A designer’s perspective — from an email

Places like Sitepoint Design and others like it are very frowned upon in the graphic design industry. They devalue design and treat it as a cheap commodity. These sites exploit designers, and often any skill level can participate. Usually these sites pull in young designers looking for a quick buck. The focus is more on how to get the most design looks for one low price rather then to find the right designer who’s working style, talent and experience will meet the company’s advertising and marketing needs.

The designs are often done quickly with no research. Some designs are not original and are stolen which can also can cause legal problems with copyright infringement. There is also no one-on-one interaction between the client and a designer to develop a custom solution.

The other problem is this site and others like it base the job on spec work. This means work done for free by designers in the hopes of “winning” a contest of some sorts. In the Sitepoint case the prize is often low amounts of money, way below industry standards for that type of work.

For example, if a client contacted you and asked you to put hours of your time into writing a technology article for the chance that you might get paid if your piece is better than all the other writers that submitted articles, would you waste your time? I doubt it. You want people to come to you because they like your work and value your talent and experience, not because they are trying to get something for nothing.

It is just not professional to invest time and resources into a project that you may not receive payment for in the end, unless you are offering your services pro-bono to a charity.

Resources

No!Spec provides a lot of information on the topic especially these:

* What is spec?

* 10 reasons to ponder

* Why speculation hurts

Other resources:

* The downside of spec work

* Show us three concepts…

* Comments responding to a post about a design contest.

* Designers Who Blog lists many other blog entries on the topic.

* Wikipedia discussion.

3rd edition update: The third edition took a bigger leap from the second than the second took from the first. Web Design in a Nutshell, 3rd ed., comes with a greater focus on Web standards and cascading style sheets (CSS). In fact, the book opens with a chapter on Web standards, whereas it was merely a footnote in the previous edition.

Rather than a sole chapter on HTML, the markup chapter blends HTML and XHTML. The chapter comes with notes explaining the major differences between HTML and XHTML. The greater emphasis on XHTML ensures newer designers dive right into XHTML and improve their chances of designing standards compliant Web pages. Furthermore, the appendix includes HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.0 and 1.1, and CSS 2.1 references.

Ajax and WCAG 2.0 have barely been around in terms of publishing time. While the Ajax process isn’t new, but its terminology and popularity are recent. Both items are covered, albeit briefly. Had Robbins wrote the book now, Ajax would not likely get huge coverage as it’s a little advanced for the book’s purposes and target market.

Accessible forms, mobile devices, internationalization, JavaScript with document object model (DOM), and document structure also gain more attention in the third edition. On the same token, the book reduces coverage of concepts that have gotten less attention such as the Web palette (Web safe colors), SMIL (synchronized multimedia integration language), frames, and DHTML.

Part III is devoted to CSS, which contains 10 new chapters — a must as CSS becomes a design standard not something to play with. The third edition superbly reflects today’s Web development environment and still sticks to its main purpose — helping new and intermediate designers get up to speed on Web design. The book continues its role as a valuable reference.

Title: Web Design in a Nutshell, 3rd Ed.
Author: Jennifer Niederst Robbins
Publisher: O’Reilly
ISBN: 0596009879
Date: February 2006
Format: Paperback
Pages: 826
Cover Price: USD: $34.99 Amazon: $22.04

“Digital Web Magazine seeks a volunteer with mighty fortitude, a fearless heart and a sense of humor to take on the role of Managing Editor. Developing and executing a content strategy for DWM is central to the role. If you’ve got a love for the Web, a visionary mind and a facility for language, we want to hear from you. Please be sure to list all your relevant experience.”

This is a wonderful opportunity for someone who is interested in getting experience in this capacity while bringing something to the table. I’ve been editor with the magazine and it’s a high quality resource to have on any designer’s resume.

Have you ever abandoned a shopping cart during the checkout stage — other than to find out the price (like Amazon says to add to basket to find out price)? I’m sure I have, but the reasons why are not coming to me at the moment (call it human virus-infected memory syndrome — no worries, this entry was scrubbed and declared germ-free). I’m sure a couple of times it was simply that I changed my mind and just didn’t need it. But was it ever because of the interface and the way the checkout pages were designed? Possibly.

Ah ha! Just recalled another reason. Shipping charges. Some places don’t let you find out the shipping charges until you’re halfway through the checkout process. There’s nothing in the FAQ, customer service or help pages giving an indication on the cost of shipping. Shipping costs can make or break a deal, at least for me. An item could cost more elsewhere, but be cheaper in the long run because shipping costs are lower. If the shipping isn’t obvious, I may not even bother with the checkout process. Depends on how much I need the item. So why put up another barrier?

E-Commerice Site Design looks at what every well-designed checkout page should contain. I strongly agree with including a “return to shopping” link. Some carts cut you off from the rest of the site and you have to resort to the back button to get back to it and you might lose information in the process. When using “return to shopping,” data tends to be saved. Heck, if someone wants to buy more things… who am I to stop them?

Registration is another big problem I watch for. While it’s nice to register and not have to enter your info every time you shop at a specific site, some people just don’t want to do it or think it’s very unlikely they’ll shop there again. So give them the option of registering or proceeding with the order without registration. Again, don’t lose an order just because you can’t store a new account.

The fewer barriers, the more likely you’ll make the sale.

No matter what business a company is in, it can make its site useful for its visitors and turn them into eventual buyers. Cashing In with Content shows how to do that with 20 case studies of types businesses — ecommerce, business-to-business, nonprofits, healthcare, education and politics.

Every case study includes an interview with an employee who played a large role in the Web site’s direction. Also, the case studies have the following sections:

* What’s for sale
* What’s so interesting
* Why you should care
* Cashing in

This set up makes it easy to reference and find what you need.

The case studies are extra useful because they’re based on lesser-known sites rather than the biggies like eBay, Amazon, and others whose names often crop up. These are sites that businesses can follow as examples instead of seeing them as pricey or impossible to do like the biggies.

Scott closes the book with the 12 best practices and shows how each practice gets applied by using examples from the case studies. While “best practices” sounds like it’s full of theory and jargon, it’s not and that’s what makes the book successful. It’s about normal challenges with realistic and doable solutions. The book offers many solutions so businesses don’t have to worry about getting stuck with one that doesn’t suit them.

The book should be on the reading list of anyone involved with a business Web site.

Title: Cashing In with Content: How Innovative Marketers Use Digital Information to Turn Browsers into Buyers
Author: David Meerman Scott
Publisher: Information Today, Inc.
ISBN: 0910965714
Date: October 2005
Format: Paperback
Pages: 280
Cover Price: USD: $24.95 Amazon: $16.47

It’s official. Macromedia is no more as Adobe has engulfed it. The Flash on the the site formerly known as Macromedia says “Adobe and Macromedia are now one.” The site also has the Adobe logo along with the tagline of “Formerly Macromedia.” So what does this all mean for customers?

Timothy Gray [Link: Chris ] posted his thoughts. I somewhat agree and disagree with each one. First up, Adobe is selling Macromedia’s Studio 8 and its Creative Suite 2 Premium in one package for $1899. This is a savings of $299 as Studio 8 costs $899 and CS2 Premium $1199. But how many people don’t have something from the bundle? Is it worth the price when you have, say… two or three items like Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and Flash? Probably not unless they’re older versions.

While the current bundle offers a good deal, what about future releases? Adobe doesn’t have Macromedia to compete with anymore. Who’s the competitor now? Microsoft? Frontpage has a lot of work before it can compete with Dreamweaver and the company doesn’t have any products to compete with Adobe’s other apps.

Also in Gray’s posting, a Senior VP posted a comment (the first one) that says, “We are not merging Flash and Acrobat!” Good to know. The same comment also mentions Adobe is developing a browser: “We are also going to build a new client, code names Apollo, that has the best of HTML, PDF and Flash–but this is not a replacement for Flash, but a new out of browser client.” On one hand, more browser competition. On the other, could it mean more headaches for designers?