Matrix Group International

Category: Design and Information Architecture

Your Web Site Is Done, Now Who Owns The Design Files?

A client whose Web site we recently implemented asked us to make changes to their Web site. What is normally a routine request turned into a major affair. The problem? The design firm that had created their original designs had gone out of business. The contract specified that the design firm owned the design and the all source files. So when the company went out of business, gone went the files. Ugh.

I attended a wedding recently where the couple had hired a much sought after photographer. I asked him if he gave clients their digital files and he said yes. He said that he believed in charging clients a fair price and then letting them own all the original images. Yes, he makes more money if clients order photos or a photo book, but if they don’t, he’s been fairly compensated and he’s happy. (more…)

July 9, 2009
The Browser Wars Are Not Over – Web Standards Are More Important Than Ever

In reviewing the usage reports for this blog a couple of weeks ago, I realized something startling: the majority of visitors are NOT using Internet Explorer. Check it out: since January of this year, 46% of all visitors use Firefox, 40% use Internet Explorer, 9% use Safari, and 3% are on Chrome. In the last 30 days, Safari users were 11% of all traffic, while IE users went down to 39%. Yeah, okay, this traffic is probably skewed because of the audience, but I’ve got Google Analytics configured to block traffic from the Matrix Group office where most of us use Firefox as our primary browser.

An analysis of traffic on Matrix Group client sites shows that IE is still the primary browser but Firefox, Safari and Chrome are gaining ground. For nearly all clients, IE commands no more than 75% of the total audience; this is still a dominant number, but it means that 1 in 4 users is not using IE. Sorry Microsoft, but the browser wars are far from over and any giant can be toppled (that means you, too, Firefox!).

All of this makes me thankful that my staff, many years ago, convinced me that Matrix Group should not be an IE-only shop. I still remember the staff retreat when the staff had a heated discussion about Web standards. A few of us argued that writing standards-compliant code was expensive because the dominant browser, Internet Explorer, was mostly not compliant, which meant we had to do double html work to make sure our sites behaved properly in IE, Netscape, Mozilla, etc. But the vast majority of the staff rightly argued that standards compliance was the right thing to do, it would give us a competitive advantage, our sites would stand the test of time better, and someday, Microsoft would come around.
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June 18, 2009
Web Conventions We Can Do Away With – The Fold and Not Linking to Outside Sites

I was in a Web design review meeting the other day and the client remarked that he wanted to make sure “all the important content was above the fold.” My initial reaction was to agree but one of the Matrix Group Front-End developers challenged this notion. The fold, he told me, no longer exists and is a myth that limits our design horizons. The fold is gone? What other Web conventions can we/should we do away with?

In Blasting the Myth of the Fold, Milissa Tarquini argues that the myth that users “won’t scroll to see anything below the fold – is doing everyone a great disservice, most of all our users.” Moreover, the fold doesn’t even exist anymore because monitor sizes and screen resolutions are all over the map these days. When we refer to the fold, are we referring to the top portion of the page on my little Sony VAIO, or the 21-inch monitor on a programmer’s desk? And btw, what about people who work on multiple monitors and never maximize their browsers?

I resisted the notion that the fold is gone, but I am finally a convert. That’s it. The fold is gone. This does not mean that Information Architects and Web Designers should go nuts and create sites that scroll forever, but I believe we can reasonably expect that users will experience our sites differently and that all of them are okay with scrolling.
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June 4, 2009
What Is a Taxonomy and Why Does Your Site Need One?
If Matrix Group is creating a new Web site for you or updating an existing one, our project plan is almost sure to include development or review of your taxonomy. Taxonomy? Doesn’t that have to do with biology and how we classify organisms? (you know, kingdom –> phylum –> class?) Sort of.

Taxonomy today refers to more than the classification of organisms. Wikipedia calls taxonomy “the practice and science of classification.” A taxonomy can help you organize an unstructured collection of information. On most Web sites, information can be organized by:
- Topic – these tend to be the topics, issues and special interest of your readers, members, customers, visitors. For example, a trade association in the auto industry might have topics related to safety, marketing, supply chain, quality.
- Type – these tend to refer to the content collections on a Web site. For example, a think tank might have news, policy briefs, commentary, testimony and podcasts.
Why do I think every site needs a taxonomy? And how do you use a taxonomy?
- Different people navigate according to their needs and interests. On any given day, a journalist might want to see all of your company’s press releases, regardless of topic; on another day, the same journalist might want to know everything your organization has to offer in the area of food safety. So let same journalist navigate by both content topic and type!
- Tagging content by taxonomy allows you to relate content by topic and type. So, a news item on climate change would have a sidebar containing other news items related to climate change, recent publications and meetings about climate change, and recent news items (regardless of topic).
- A taxonomy allows you to connect people with their interests. Let your visitors sign up for news by their interest areas, let them personalize their Web experience on your site, and compare the interests of your members with the content you have online.
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April 28, 2009
Why Your CEO Needs to Be Part of Your Next Web Project

Whenever we start a project, especially if the project is related to branding or design, we ask for time with the CEO, Executive Director, President — the top staff person. It’s not always easy to get time with the CEO, and we often don’t get it. However, we have found that our most successful projects have at least minimal CEO involvement, especially in the early stages, when we define goals, users and organizational identity.

Here’s why I think your CEO needs to be part of your next Web project.

The CEO can best articulate why your organization needs to exist. Earlier this year, we were kicking off a project with a professional society in the military space. The Executive Director was discussing the mission and goals of the organization when he said “our members protect the world’s waterways.” A few seconds later, a staff member said, “I’ve been working here for several years and I’ve been waiting for that explanation of why we exist and what our members do.” (more…)

December 9, 2008
We’re Now Designing to 1024 Resolution

Sometime last year, we started designing sites to a 1024 screen resolution. Based on feedback from clients that they wanted more real estate for their content, and usage reports that showed users having a minimum 1024 x 768 screen resolution, we decided to change our default practice. Today, we design to 1024 unless circumstances warrant otherwise.

According to data from the w3schools, 86% of users use computers with screen sizes of 1024 x 768 pixels or higher as of January 2008. All new laptops and monitors ship with at least 1024 resolution, usually higher, so this statistics does not surprise. My new Sony VAIO laptop shipped with 1280 x 800 resolution. (more…)

October 23, 2008