Web Site Usability "Don't Make Me Think"

If you looking for a good book on the fundamentals of web usability I would highly recommend "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug.  Many people in the usability community consider this book as an excellent starting point to web usability.

While much of what he says is common sense and somewhat obvious. Definitely “Don’t Make Me Think" is solid book explaining web usability in layman terms.

Whether you are a newbie to usability or a veteran looking for a quick refresher course, go ahead and pick yourself up a copy.

Don’t Make Me Think: Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition
 

Drupal Vs. Wordpress: Which CMS should you use for you web site?

One of the most common questions I get asked by clients is “what is the best platform too build my web site on, Drupal or Wordpress?”. Over the last 10 years I have probably used over a half dozen Content Management Systems (CMS) including Wordpress. And after internal comparison (in addition to client feedback) it has been very clear that Drupal is the far superior and overall winner as the better CMS between the two.

Traditionally Wordpress was designed as a single user blogging platform and tends to be good for building blogs and simple brochure type web sites.

While Drupal was originally built as an overall CMS giving it the ability to simply build blogs and brochure web sites (like wordpress), in addition too larger and more complex web sites. Drupal is great at building everything from e-commerce web site, wikis, forums, multi user blogs , online magazines, social networks and large enterprise web sites.

In addition too the overall scalability I have also found many of the modules including ones for Search Engine Optimization tend to be much easier and effective too use.

Overall I can say that Wordpress is no doubt a solid blogging platform, and have used in the past to build many web sites. Although once I started using Drupal (in addition to client feedback) it was very clear that Drupal was a far more flexible, scalable and overall smarter CMS.
 

Why Blog? The Big Picture

I can think of many reasons why someone might start and maintain a blog:

Blogs? Yeah We Got That

1. You have something to say

2. You enjoy the craft of writing

3. You want to figure out what you think, and do so in public

4. You want to be part of a larger community of like minded individuals

5. You have a hobby or interest that you are really, really into

6. You want to maintain a presence

7. You have an expertise and you want to share it

8. You have an eye for content (text, graphics and video) and you enjoy leading other people to them

9. You want to create a online record of what you are reading, looking at or thinking about

10. You like engaging in debate with total strangers

That’s off the top of my head.

Note that each of these bullet points begins with YOU. Blogs are about what YOU want to produce, regardless of how many readers shows up. The Big Picture would
more or less be the same content with 100 or a 100,000 daily readers.
 

Google SEO and the Quality of Search Results

Here is a great interview i came across with Danny Sullivan at SXSW talking about SEO and Google search results.  He touches on Google search results and "content farms" and how this affects quality search results, among other things.

Drupal 7 was just released!

I am happy to say that Drupal has finally released Drupal 7.  Very excited to implement this into our projects.  Checkout out the Video.

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