Posts Tagged ‘web development’

Introducing: Patrick Te Tau

Friday, July 18th, 2008

Tim writes

Webstruxure was founded by Aaron Stewart and Ian Edwards. Our other employees are Richard Simes, Patrick Te Tau and myself, Tim Jones. This week, it’s time to introduce Patrick.

The first time I met Patrick was when he came to do one of the early usability tests for Rightcar, the car-comparison site Webstruxure developed in 2007 for Land Transport New Zealand. He stayed beyond the allocated hour, and made many valuable comments about the layout and graphic design of the site.

I was struck then by his enthusiasm and energy, and I’m still impressed by them now he’s working for Webstruxure! (A note to prospective usability testing subjects: we can’t afford to hire everyone who does testing for us, much as we’d like to.)

patrick_photo.jpg

Patrick writes:

From the Wairarapa, I was raised in Carterton by my artist mum, Victoria Te Tau. As a kidalump (zoological term) I pulled all my toys apart and asked an incessant number of “whys” to a patient family (mainly mine). University turned out to be much the same, a toy world of quick sorts and Descartes.

I met the Webstruxure posse through my friend and now co-worker Richard while working for the visualisation company Chaos Dimention (a Java 3D role) only just upstairs from Webstruxure at Creative HQ. Sharing similar philosophies (Belgian beer) worked out well; they liked the “cut of my jib”.

As a Web wrangler I touch all parts of web development from the initial requirements with our customers through to the implementation. Processes, algorithms and, increasingly, usability have become the tastiest of flavours; my wrangler role typically sates this.

Brazilian jiu jitsu at Grappling Specialists Wellington is pretty much the sweetest pastime ever. It’s physically challenging and suitably cogent. Photography is my other vice, and I hope to be New Zealand’s first concert stilt photographer (to self – get stilts). I also read books slowly, currently page-per-daying The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris and Zadie Smith’s On Beauty.

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Posted in About Webstruxure, Biography, Staff | 1 Comment »

Introducing: Richard Simes

Saturday, July 5th, 2008

Tim writes:

Webstruxure was founded by Aaron Stewart and Ian Edwards. Our other employees are Richard Simes, Patrick Te Tau and myself, Tim Jones. This week, it’s time to introduce Richard.

Before I started working here regularly, I did some contract usability testing work for Webstruxure on the Rightcar site, when it was under development. Before each test session started, I would put participants at their ease by introducing them to what the test involved. As part of this, I assured the participants – truthfully – that “I am not involved in the design of this website, so you can be as honest as you like and you won’t hurt my feelings”.

But it took two people to run the tests: one to deliver the spiel and explain the scenarios, and the other to observe and take the notes. For many of the tests, Richard was the observer and note-taker, although he was heavily involved in the design of the Rightcar site. I was amazed by Richard’s ability to listen to people criticise aspects of the site without reacting negatively – an ability which, I fear, is beyond me. But that’s Richard for you!

Richard skateboaring at the Wellington waterfront

Richard writes:

I joined Webstruxure in 2005 as their first employee and as my first ‘real’ job. I have always had a passion for problem solving and have found my role as resident geek for Webstruxure most rewarding in this regard.

I always like to use the right tool for the job, and try to familiarise myself with as many ‘right tools’ as possible.

In my spare time, I am an avid longboard skateboarder and can be often found weaving through pedestrians at Wellington’s waterfront or skateboarding from Taihape to Wellington.

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Posted in About Webstruxure, Biography, Staff | No Comments »

Content: The Spectre at the Feast?

Friday, March 21st, 2008

A while back, I blogged about how content is supposed to be king (or queen) in the website development process but often gets relegated to last place in the scramble for resources and time.

I finished by noting how Webstruxure’s Sketch can help with this process, by ensuring that clients get on with creating content earlier in the web development cycle, with content being created in parallel with the creation and approval of the site structure, rather being left to till last. That’s crucial, because it’s often not until they create the website content that clients realise the proposed site structure won’t actually meet their needs.

I stand by what I said then, but discussions with web designers have made it clear that it is almost always difficult to get clients to provide content. Even when the site has been designed and built, and the only thing to be done is add the content, delays and reworking are common.

Why is it so hard for clients to provide content? After all, clients – especially in a government town like Wellington – spend much of their working lives creating complex documents, so it’s not as though they are unused to working with words.

But writing for the web is different. It requires the ability to spell out key points in simple language and put them up front on the page, and it requires the ability to conceptualise content as part of a hyperlinked matrix rather than a linear document.

Those are specialised skills. The people who specialise in them are called web copywriters. They’re experienced at providing content for not just the main text of web pages, but also all the other types of web content: metadata, quick links, ads in the right-hand column.

Naturally, however, web copywriters charge fees commensurate with their skills. In keeping with content’s generally low status, budgets for smaller sites rarely stretch to employing them.

There are books like Rachel McAlpine’s Web Word Wizardry that teach clients how to write content. There are courses that do likewise. But unless content is accorded its necessary level of importance, the books won’t be bought and the content won’t be paid for.

To help deal with this dilemma, we’re looking at ways in which Sketch can help users to improve the quality of their content. A software tool – at least, an affordable tool – can’t do all that’s needed in this area, but it’s possible we can find ways to help clients write content which is clear, concise, focused and readable. This isn’t easy, and it may not be in the first commercial release, but we’re determined to do what we can to make sure that content can wear its rightful crown.

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Posted in Products, Sketch | No Comments »

Small is Beautiful

Saturday, January 19th, 2008

When I’m not working at Webstruxure, I’m an author. One of the things authors like to do is list all the bizarre jobs they have done on their books’ dust jackets. You know the sort of thing:

Malachi Jevons has been a deep sea diver, alpaca farmer, test pilot, oil rig roughneck, Formula 1 driver, social worker and lie detector test administrator. He now lives a quiet life in rural Afghanistan.

My dust jackets don’t match up. Most of my career has been spent working with language: both the English language, as a technical writer, editor and proofreader, usability tester, documenter, and now blogger; and computer languages, as a programmer way back in the mainframe days.

I’ve worked for big organisations, little organisations, and those in between, and I’m here to tell you that when you’re selecting a web development company, small is usually best.

But why? Aren’t you better off dealing with the big players, with their staff in the hundreds or thousands, their battalions of account managers, their reams of legal boilerplate?

We don’t think so. When you’re working with a small company, you get to deal directly with senior staff and with the developers working on your project, not with an account manager who may have very little knowledge of your organisation and your needs.* You get personal service from people who know your name and what you’re all about (yes, I know this sounds a little like Cheers).

Small companies specialise, whereas big companies generalise. By choosing a small company, you can ensure that you are dealing with people who understand both your business need and the best way of meeting that need. That cuts down on overheads and reworking.

Nobody’s perfect, but the track record of big IT projects strongly suggests that there’s a better way. Unfortunately, in the government sector at least, procurement policies can make that better way hard to pursue. I’ll return to this issue in a later post. Till then, when you’re thinking of which company to use for your next web project, think small.

*I’m not knocking all account managers here. A good one can do a great job of keeping a project on track. But when the account manager sees their role in life as being to ensure that the client never talks directly to the designers or developers working in their project, you have a problem.

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Posted in Business, Philosophy, web development | No Comments »

Content: The Once and Future King?

Saturday, January 12th, 2008

We all know that content is supposed to be king (or queen, if you prefer). Users may be impressed with the fancy graphics and the Flash animations the first time they visit your site, but it’s content and usability that will keep them coming back.

Yet it’s all too common in the web development process for content to be treated as the scullery boy rather than the king. Lots of people want to talk about the design and argue the toss over what size the logo should be, the precise shade of green to use in the footer, and whose photo goes on the “About Us” page. Other people realise how crucial navigation is, and are prepared to sit down with wireframes and card sorts until the site structure is sorted out.

But as for content … all too often, about two weeks before the site is due to go live, some poor schlub from the client company is told to sit down and deal with the content. If the site is new, they’ll be handed a long word processor document and told to cut it up into web pages. If the site’s a redesign, their task is even simpler: copy the content of the old site and paste it into the corresponding pages on the new site.

Problem solved, right? Now everyone else can forget about content and concentrate on important things, like ordering the canapés for the site launch party. They’ll even let the content person attend the launch, provided he or she stands at the back and doesn’t say anything.

Unfortunately, no. Major flaws in a site structure may not be revealed until someone sits down to flesh out the structures with content. But when the site launch date is staring everyone in the face, no-one wants to hear that the structure doesn’t work. “It’s only content,” someone will mutter. “What’s really important is that senior management agrees on the home page colour scheme.”

So here’s an idea: develop the content along with the structure, so that one informs the other. Use a tool that helps the designer and the client work collaboratively. Use a tool that can turn your online prototype into a basic working site at the click of a button (and the payment of a small amount of money).

Use Sketch, in other words. And it’s coming soon.

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Posted in Products, Sketch, web development | No Comments »