November 2007

I recently responded to some questions posed by the National Auctioneers Association regarding good website design. These are my thoughts.

> What are the essential elements of a good website?

Good websites are viewable and accessible from any computer or device using any browser or software. I think a site should look the same on a Mac running Safari as it does on Windows running Internet Explorer. I think sites should require as little additional technology like Flash or Java as possible. I design using XHTML and CSS because it’s light and doesn’t require any additional components. A good website shouldn’t have advertising or require or even suggest that the user navigate away from that site.

> Which websites do you like?

I like the newer, standards-based websites like Wordpress, Facebook and mozilla.com because they’re clean and elegant and don’t have anything moving or making noise without specific requests from the user. They don’t have confusing navigation like drop-down menus that reduce accessibility.
> What are the goals of your company’s website?

Our company’s site aims to be as simple as possible to allow anyone to place bids on any item from any device. We acknowledge that most users want to find items within auctions, not information about us, so that’s the aspect on which we focus the users initial attention.
> If you could give any advice to someone considering creating a website
> or revising their existing website, what would your advice be?

For an auctioneer looking to create or redesign a website, it is important to make the correct assumptions about the intentions of the users. I believe users want to find auctions, so the most important part of the homepage or first page of a site should be the calendar. If the user is seriously looking for institutional information like the auctioneer’s history or contact information, he or she will be more than willing to click a link to navigate to that section. Also, the Internet is the most powerful marketing tool. The auctioneer who pictures every item and describes it on the website will always be more powerful than the auctioneer who types a paragraph listing the items for sale and posts a picture gallery.

> In your experience, what is the biggest mistake someone could make
> regarding their website?

The biggest mistake someone could make building a website is to use Flash without offering an alternative content delivery mechanism. Also, a user shouldn’t have to do anything other than load a page to get the content. Mouse-overs and drop-down menus only make it harder for the user to obtain content and may even obfuscate the navigational structure of the site.

The gospel according to Aaron.

It seems we’re playing on Saturday night in Hays. We were so excited to play that we thought the show was sooner than it is. If you come to see us tonight at Professor’s, you get free beer on Saturday.

We’ve rolled up a new website
Complete with fried chicken and cupcakes

Two shows on the menu

Friday, tomorrow night, at Professor’s in Hays. Lucas and I will be picnicking Hays. Bring chopsticks.

Friday, 7 December, will be the McGraw’s Manhattan feast that will live in infamy for one reason or another. It will be a full band meal complete with lightly browned, fruity-vegetable Lucas Maddy; over-easy eggs and dairy Chris Goering; freshly baked bread-and-starch Mason Powell; and a very ala cart Aaron Traffas (condiments, for those of you keeping score at home).

If you’re still hungry, or need a brew to wash it all down, check the new website for the video of Wayne opening a beer bottle with a laptop. Digg it. It’s on the second page.

Eat on,
Aaron

Good song by Cake.

I’m not cool like everyone else - don’t have my own website. Might look at that…don’t have much wisdom to espouse though.

Here’s my entry…never had a place to post this where millions would see it…oh yeah.

I’ve a body scraped and scarred through the toil of many years. And I’ve a face of weathered lines, eroded by frightened tears. I cried for all who suffered life and pledged to free them from their strife. Though average I have been superb and conquered all my fears. And still stand I on Bedloe Isle to greet and persevere, as those who pass under my torch face a new frontier.

My sister Justice, lacking sight, still judges all in black and white. But over my shoulder, as I face East, I see you all from most to least. And so do those who bore your folks, who came here with the highest hopes, ambition, bravery, courage too: they see what has become of you. A fatter nation day by day who works to find the easy way and shame the work of yesterday it took to slowly cultivate the land, which we now desecrate. You burn the flag for which I stand without fear of reprimand, and then claim rights to pornography and for your recourse come to me? You say I give you liberty allowing you this ease to sleaze; but when the twins behind me fell you told me I could go to hell for “profiling” those I don’t know well and searching caves in hopes to quell a thirst for blood for just a spell. But somehow it seems quite unfair when you say you don’t really care, it’s now become my cross to bear. And from the right they pull so hard to proceed with harsh and cruel regard but on my left they soon discard my face that has become so scarred after countrymen were charred and marred because we had let down our guard. Who came on ships, under my gaze, would see you now with hearts ablaze. The sons, of those who left before beliefs forced them to fight a war, are hence sent forth from friendly shore to settle someone else’s score but in their homes some are ignored and others yet are much abhorred which leaves them not but to implore to justify their awful chore.

And if you favor this terrorist bout do you do anymore than pout and pathetically piss and moan about injustice as you tout the ways of the peaceful and the most devout, which get the benefit of the doubt even as they kill, without emotion other than to shout “America must be taken out!”

Surely something can be done: cloudy skies but hide the sun and in the past things were more fun and no one bothered anyone. Right?

My thoughts have become quite uncertain – did not we fear the Iron Curtain? And in Desert Storm we fought Saddam; before that it was Vietnam. And Korea, battles in the sea, preceded by monstrosities in Germany. And the tearful duty of the Enola Gay. And when this paper you have read will it be used to make a bed with just my words to pad your head?

I don’t know how many of you create websites or offer content, but here’s a brown nugget for you.

For the love of god and everything holy, do not use PDF as the first line of content conveyance. I was shopping for NAS devices yesterday and it seemed like each one wanted to offer me a PDF instead of a web page listing the specs. A practice more lazy than functional, I would like to think it’s being phased out in favor of accessible content. I’d like to think a lot of things.

I finally gave in to the ways of the world and recognized that the reason I haven’t posted anything since July was because I didn’t have a Wordpress blog. At least that’s what I tell myself.

 Give me a few days to get the old content loaded and the old domain redirected and maybe I’ll come up with something worth writing.