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Design checklist

Mert Tol has created an exhaustive checklist of all design issues that one should consider before going live. There are points from visual design to architecture to content. Useful to have all these in one page.

style guide Add tag Permalink | Saturday, September 12, 2009

3 types of page headings

This is a good article on how to write the 3 types of page headings:

  1. Question heading: A heading in the form of a question
  2. Statement heading: A heading that uses a noun and a verb
  3. Topic heading: A heading that is a word or short phrase

Here is another article on headings by Ginny Redish where she provides many more examples.

content strategy, style guide Add tag Permalink | Friday, September 11, 2009

Developing a Departmental Style Guide

Jean Hollis Weber wrote this article in 2007 but it's still relevant today given the recent focus on content strategy.

"This article provides information that will help you in planning and developing a style guide. You’ll find information about the purposes of a style guide and guidelines for what should (and should not) be included, whether to develop one or more style guides, and how detailed the style guide should be. At the end of the article, you’ll find a sample style guide outline (in PDF format) that illustrates many of the details discussed in this article."

content strategy, style guide Add tag Permalink | Sunday, August 16, 2009

Writing an Interface Style Guide

Jina Bolton writes about keeping the interface relevant and useful even after the launch. Her key -- interface style guides.

"Interface design standards enable brand stewardship. Commonly documented in a design “style guide,” these standards inform clients and content editors of branding guidelines for typography, whitespace, color, etc. The design style guide provides a reference in which developers can describe the way the interface is intended to look, and helps designers to be consistent as the interface is updated so that, in turn, the interface continues to feel consistent."

interface, style guide, writing Add tag Permalink | Saturday, June 14, 2008

Web Design Manuals blog

Andreas Johannsen is blogging about his book on Web Design Manuals -- or, as I've referred to them, Web Style Guides. Going by his explanation, I think that Web Style Manual might be a better term. All the best Andreas.

style guide Add tag Permalink | Sunday, August 13, 2006

Dogmas Are Meant to be Broken: An Interview with Eric Reiss

Interview with Eric Reiss on his Web Dogmas listed below:

  1. Anything that exists only to satisfy the internal politics of the site owner must be eliminated.
  2. Anything that exists only to satisfy the ego of the designer must be eliminated.
  3. Anything that is irrelevant within the context of the page must be eliminated.
  4. Any feature or technique that reduces the visitor’s ability to navigate freely must be reworked or eliminated.
  5. Any interactive object that forces the visitor to guess its meaning must be reworked or eliminated.
  6. No software, apart from the browser itself, must be required to get the site to work correctly.
  7. Content must be readable first, printable second, downloadable third.
  8. Usability must never be sacrificed for the sake of a style guide.
  9. No visitor must be forced to register or surrender personal data unless the site owner is unable to provide a service or complete a transaction without it.
  10. Break any of these rules sooner than do anything outright barbarous.

style guide Add tag Permalink | Thursday, June 01, 2006

Creating & maintaining a web style guide

I've written an article on creating and maintaining a web style guide to help web teams better manage their websites.

style guide Add tag Permalink | Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Blogging behind the firewall

Insights from Infoworld's use of weblog in projects: "Weblogs are not just for the hard-core techies. Our editorial staff recently started its own Weblog to share updated style guides, edit calendars, and other tools of the trade. Im looking forward to seeing what unexpected points of leverage they achieve with their Weblog. Its amazing how a system so simple and easy can produce such profound results."

style guide, blogging Add tag Permalink | Monday, May 24, 2004

Learn how to implement an effective web style guide

Gerry McGovern outlines 5 steps to building an effective style guide for your online content management:
  1. Definition of target reader
  2. Description of style and tone
  3. Description of key web writing conventions
  4. A-Z of usage
  5. References

style guide Add tag Permalink | Tuesday, May 18, 2004

Web Style Guide: Now Online

Now available online: Web Style Guide
"The guidance we offer in Web Style Guide has always been grounded on the functional aspects of design. In this second edition we extend our focus on functionality with additional sections on Web site accessibility, Cascading Style Sheets, and flexible page design. We include additional sections on information architecture, site maintenance, and multimedia design. And we have added illustrations and updated our Web site examples to reflect current best practices."
[thanks Column Two]

style guide Add tag Permalink | Tuesday, May 27, 2003

Hot Text: Hurray for FAQs

Hot Text: Hurray for FAQs
Traditional Help, even when it is mounted on a Web site, energized with Dynamic HTML and JavaScript, linked to embedded customer assistance, and delivered as active server pages, ... well, even then Help seems like a lecture.
On the other hand, a set of Frequently Asked Questions, even when done poorly, seems like a conversation...

style guide, writing Add tag Permalink | Wednesday, October 16, 2002

Web Style Guide: 2nd Edition

Resource: Web Style Guide 2nd Edition
The guidance we offer in Web Style Guide has always been grounded on the functional aspects of design. In this second edition we extend our focus on functionality with additional sections on Web site accessibility, Cascading Style Sheets, and flexible page design. We include additional sections on information architecture, site maintenance, and multimedia design. And we have added illustrations and updated our Web site examples to reflect current best practices.

style guide Add tag Permalink | Tuesday, July 23, 2002

Gerry McGovern: The Web Content

Gerry McGovern: The Web Content Style Guide: Designing for the Web: Part 1
The Web was invented as a communications medium for publishing content. Publishing content on the Web is just like publishing content anywhere else. It needs to be concise, well written, well organized, well presented, and well targeted.

style guide, web content Add tag Permalink | Tuesday, January 08, 2002

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