Perishable Press

After announcing my intention to redesign Perishable Press, I received some great feedback addressing everything from site architecture and navigation to appearance and usability. As the conversations continue, I want to spend some time thinking about usability, navigation, columns and sidebars. The current minimalist design features a single column layout with no sidebars. Content is located prominently front and center, with all navigational links appearing in either the oversized “footer” area or at the end of each individual post. As several people have pointed out, such navigational strategy (or lack thereof) discourages visitors from digging deeper into the site. Apparently, the pile of links at the bottom of each page — the menu, as I like to call it — requires far too much effort to decipher. I mean, really, just because it all makes perfect sense to me, doesn’t mean that everyone else will “get it” too.

So, here is where I’m at so far with the next redesign. I have a good idea of what the overall design will look like. Although I am going with another dark background throughout the site, I will be focusing my initial efforts largely on usability. The text will be larger and lighter to provide better contrast and readability against the dark background. Because of this improved usability, there will be no need for a secondary, “high-contrast” stylesheet; however, as I am aware that there will always be people who have issues reading light text on a dark background, I will provide an easy and hopefully obvious way for users to switch to one of my 14 or so alternate themes (including the current one). So, we will have bigger, better-contrasted text, especially for paragraphs, lists, and other “texty” areas. Links will also be better emphasized with a solid underline. Although I disagree with some of the more hardcore linkologists out there who insist on highly contrasted, underlined text on every link throughout the site, I do agree that links need to be clearly identifiable, especially within paragraph text.

Beyond these general usability improvements, I am still grappling with the best way to implement a solid navigational system. With the current single-column theme, the location of navigational elements is really a matter of vertical positioning within the page. You know, main links near the top, post-related links in the middle, and miscellaneous links at the bottom. To move beyond this fairly limiting situation, it seems necessary to embrace a multi-column layout. I really like some of the new “magazine-style” layouts that people have been reiterating and cannibalizing for the past year or so, but I am not really excited about the rigidity, formality, and predictability of such designs. One of the great things about some of these new, “non-traditional” designs, however, is that they are really pushing the envelope in terms of how content may be arranged on a page. For example, I have seen some great designs where a double-width sidebar is broken up vertically into various regions, with single-width and double-width panels alternating alongside the page’s main content. Other great layouts mix and match multiple columns in very creative ways, obscuring clearly defined sidebar regions into overlapping “featured-content” panels. Really, the possibilities are endless and often overwhelming.

Fortunately, this site has certain design requirements that eliminate many of the more frivolous and experimental layouts. For example, I want to keep a strong focus on content by displaying articles prominently and with as few distractions as possible. In the current minimalist design, I became obsessive about this requirement, emphasizing article content at the expense of everything else. Unfortunately, this strategy now manifests its own navigational shortcomings, and thus needs to be tempered with a strong dose of usability for the next design. Given this reasoning, I am thinking about implementing a simple two-column layout, featuring content on the left and a sidebar on the right. The crux of this plan rests on having two page regions — content and sidebar — that are consistent and well-defined throughout the vertical length of each page. This, I think, will enable the content and navigational tools to coexist peacefully alongside one another with minimal interference. This may seem completely obvious to those of you who already grasp the functional and aesthetic significance of the common sidebar, but I honestly had to “think this one out” before understanding it well enough to embrace the concept.

So why not two sidebars, either adjacently positioned or straddling the main content? First, the width of the main content area needs to be at least as wide as it is now, due to self-imposed dimensional constraints of images and other post content. To include two sidebars into a layout that is say, 1024 pixels wide, leaves less than 250 pixels for each sidebar. This may work for some, but for me, that is just not enough room for anything other than badges, links, and icons. Trying to force full-post titles into 250 pixels requires small font sizes, broken lines, or both. Then, once you try cramming any worthwhile amount of content into such a narrow column, the sidebar begins to look forced, tedious, and cluttered. Add a second sidebar to the mix — on either side of the main content — and you might as well save yourself the agony and just download a ready-made theme instead. Thus, for the next redesign, I am going with a nice, wide, single sidebar that will be kept as clean and simple as possible. Anything less limits effective navigation; anything more detracts from the main content.

Recently, I have been getting a lot of requests for multiple-loop configurations in WordPress. It seems that multiple-column, multiple-loop configurations are in high demand these days, especially ones that display posts like this:

• First column, first loop: display posts #1-5
• Second column, second loop: display posts #6-10
• Third column, third loop: display posts #11-15

Using WordPress and a little CSS, this configuration is relatively easy to accomplish. Let’s cut right to the chase..

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I want to redesign Perishable Press. The current design was released around a year ago, and has received numerous compliments and criticisms. Compliments tend to focus on the theme’s minimalist sensibilities, while criticism is generally directed at the design’s poor usability. Personally, I find the “grey-on-black” color scheme to be very inspiring. Others, however, have difficulties reading the content, and that’s not good.

So, throughout the course of the past year, the notion of yet another redesign has been slowly building momentum. Part of me could continue using the current theme for several more years with no complaints; yet another part of me is constantly dissatisfied with the status quo and established routine. These two parts have been doing battle, and on several occasions recently, some new design ideas have tried their best to spring forth, only to be shot down by the overwhelming critic within that sharply says, “no, that sucks — nowhere near as good as the current design..”

This process has made me realize one of the subtle downsides to a minimalist design: it’s difficult to go back to anything more complex. In producing this “dark” theme, my goal was to eliminate fluff, eradicate hype, and consolidate features. Thus the following page structure:

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Aaron Wall on SEO, the future of the Web, Google dominance, and life as a professional taste tester

As someone who keeps a close eye on the mystical world of Search Engine Optimization, one of my favorite sources of information is SEO-guru Aaron Wall. Aaron is the author of the immensely popular SEOBook.com, where he shares his knowledge, ideas, and opinions on a wide range of SEO-related topics. I have always admired the direct, informative way in which Aaron presents his content, which itself is always insightful and intriguing. Having read much of Aaron’s thoughts on SEO and marketing, I wanted to “zoom out” and ask Aaron a few questions about the possible future of SEO and life on the Web in general. Recently, Aaron was generous enough to respond to some of these rather eclectic questions, including some interesting “behind-the-scenes” questions revealing how Aaron works on the Web..

Hi Aaron, thanks for your time. Please tell us a little about yourself and your involvement with the Web.

I have been online for close to 6 years now, and have been studying SEO for all but about 6 months of that. We publish a number of sites, work with a few Fortune 500 clients. Via our SEO Book site we offer SEO tools, SEO training material, and an exclusive SEO community.

What are some of the most important SEO practices today, and how will they change in the near future? Far future?

Currently links are the backbone of Google’s ranking algorithm. They may remain that way for a long time, but Microsoft has recently done research to use actual browsing data rather than PageRank as the core of an algorithm and found that to offer relevant results. As Google and other Internet companies gain more data they mix in usage data into the relevancy algorithms a lot more.

Because link building requires influencing other people it can be a long, hard, and complex process unless you really get the psychology that goes into link building. So link building gets discussed more than any other SEO activity, but things like keyword research, on page optimization, and setting up a strong site structure are also important.

What do you think the Internet will look like far into the future, like maybe 100 or 200 (or more) years from now?

I think the distinction between the web and the real world will be hard to draw, or perhaps non-existent. Communication technologies will keep evolving and information will available readily in whatever format you like, but with well blended ads. It will become nearly impossible to see the difference between ads and content.

When it comes to long-term planning of Web content, what steps should we take now to prepare for the future?

Know your market better than most competitors by tracking it. Participate in the social aspects in your field (like blogging and conferences) such that when you have something important to share your message spreads far and wide.

How would life on earth be different if the Internet were to suddenly cease to exist? How important has it become?

I think many people are addicted the web for entertainment, communication, and/or income. The web makes *most* markets that touch it far more efficient. Less efficient markets would create some arbitrage opportunities and strengthen some old gatekeepers, but in general it would be bad for most societies that have integrated the web heavily into their culture and/or infrastructure.

I would be hosed. So would millions of other people. The web is not just a business platform, but is a creative outlet that connects people. Without the web my wife never would have found me.

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Exclusive guest post by Michael Roach

Picture it. You have just prepared some recent snapshots of your buddies from a gathering over the weekend. Special care was taken to choose the images, and resize the images appropriately. As you sign in to your favorite social networking site to upload these images, you realize your credentials are invalid. You type in permutations of your user-name and password, check the “Caps” Key, but find that you are still not allowed access to your account. Your account could be have been hacked, removed, or just made unavailable. The site that you swore would hold and keep your memories, thoughts, feelings, and treasured moments are inaccessible or worse, gone forever. How could this happen? Just as we get attached to material things in life, we become attached to our email, blogs, podcasts, bookmarks, and images. In other words, this is our new digital existence. Some would call it our digital baggage.

With all the fresh and neat Web 2.0 social networking apps available on the Internet, comes the risk of losing our digital mementos. These sites give us services that allow us to communicate with like-minded individuals. If there is a problem, these individuals that we have gathered may return, may partially return, or may never return. We run the risk of losing important connections we have worked hard to obtain when we do not backup our contacts’ information. If a journalist has accumulated friends or followers that read his/her articles, a network forms and communication is shared. If this network disappears due to site outages, this could drastically change how information flows. In many cases, this could have serious repercussions especially if a breaking news story requires factual information that cannot be obtained from sources before a deadline. Jobs could literally be at stake.

We must not fully rely or trust that our digital lives will stay intact or secure. These sites see attempted exploits and abuse daily. In addition, the rapid unexpected growth and expansion of some of these social sites can cripple its own resources. One or more back-ups and practices must be employed by users to reinforce social networking’s fragile state. It is not reasonable for a free service to be available for every message or data transaction, no matter how important or trivial. Responsibility must be taken on our parts to prepare in advance for outages and unavailable resources.

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Exclusive guest post by Erika Kendall

More and more these days, we are all finding WordPress being used as a content management system. It shouldn’t be too tough to see why — highly customizable, a community growing in size and knowledge, and a plethora of options in the way of plugins and simple yet highly effective PHP edits. Thanks to these, you have access to an open source script that allows you to show what you want, when you want, where you want, and how you want in virtually no time. But what happens when you only want a simple variation from one page to the next?

Enter: the conditional tag.

What is it?

Conditional tags, in short, say that if these certain requirements are met, then put this code in the page. I’m sure that you can imagine the level of control this allows you to have over your themes. If you only want to display your blogroll on the home page? Use a conditional tag! Want to stick AdSense in all your posts except for the ones categorized as “sponsored posts?” Use conditional tags! Do you want to avoid creating a whole new file in your template for a 404 error page? Conditional tags to the rescue! Of course, do note that one of the great things about WordPress is that there are several different ways to do everything, but I’ve never heard anyone complain about adding an extra tool to the toolkit. ;)

The Setup

Let’s set up a scenario that calls for a need for Conditional tags. Let’s say that you’re creating a website where you want different content to show on your sidebar for different parts of your website. You have three different sidebars that you want to display on your website: the first one is housed in primary-sidebar.php; the second one in secondary-sidebar.php; and the third, tertiary-sidebar.php. You want primary-sidebar.php to appear on your “home”, “archives”, and “contact” pages. You want secondary-sidebar.php to appear whenever a single post is being displayed. (I know you could always just add another sidebar.php file, but if the variation between the two would only be slight, what’s the point?) Lastly, you want tertiary-sidebar.php to be shown everywhere else.

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It’s been awhile since my last personal news post, and I figure that enough has been happening to warrant yet another exciting news update. Yay! ;)

So let’s see, first on my mind is the recent launch of the new design for Monzilla Media, the official site for my personal website and graphic design business. The first two versions of the site were single-page brochure sites, but this new version is fully loaded, featuring tons of portfolio content, business news, and service information. If you’ve got a minute, I would love to hear your feedback!

Speaking of new sites, another one of my recent projects, mindfeed.org, is online and slowly growing in terms of both content and traffic. mindfeed.org explores some of the more philosophical ideas that don’t seem to fit well here at Perishable Press. I love to write about perception, relativism, conspiracy, religion, politics, and all of that fun stuff. If any of that’s your cup of tea, I encourage you to drop in an check out my recent article on interpretive reconnaissance.

Also on the site front, there has been a lot of new activity with the Dead Letter Art collective. We have a new issue of DLa currently available on lulu.com, and are giving away free issues of the promotional version of the issue (while supplies last). I am really proud of the new edition; it is 128 pages of pure, esoterically creative bliss, printed in full color and pefectly bound to make it all sweet. To further elaborate the event, I am posting a series of articles covering the entire process of creating the issue.

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For on-demand printing of books, calendars, and other desktop-published items, lulu.com is a popular choice. The on-demand service provides customers with online administration interface that provides automated tools for uploading, publishing, and managing their projects. Once published, books may be printed, purchased, downloaded, and/or distributed. Of course, the entire process of using lulu.com to publish and print projects is fairly complex, with many details contingent on your specific needs. As a recent customer of lulu.com, I thought I would share a bit of DIY wisdom for anyone considering using their on-demand printing service.

Tip #1: Read the FAQs before planning your project

If you are planning on using lulu.com to print your next book, begin by reading through all of the relevant FAQs available at their site. Not all of them will apply to your specific project, but you should read through the entire process, even if you have yet to plan for the details. Depending on your project, you will find important information regarding just about every step of the self-publishing process. I suggest taking notes or bookmarking key pages as you read through the documents. This is important because there is a significant amount of topical redundancy throughout the lulu.com documentation, with conflicting information provided in different locations. With these discrepancies noted or bookmarked, you will be better equipped to extract information from the “Live Help” support staff.

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Hmmm.. Let’s see here. Google can do it. MSN/Live can do it. Even Ask can do it. So why oh why can’t Yahoo’s grubby Slurp crawler manage to adhere to robots.txt crawl directives? Just when I thought Yahoo! finally figured it out, I discover more Slurp tracks in my Blackhole trap for bad spiders:

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In my previous article on redirecting 404 requests for favicon files, I presented an HTAccess technique for redirecting all requests for nonexistent favicon.ico files to the actual file located in the site’s web-accessible root directory:

# REDIRECT FAVICONZ
<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c>
 RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} favicon.ico [NC]
 RewriteRule (.*) http://domain.tld/favicon.ico [R=301,L] 
</ifmodule>

As discussed in the article, this code is already in effect here at Perishable Press, as may be seen by clicking on any of the following links:

• http://perishablepress.com/press/favicon.ico
• http://perishablepress.com/press/2007/06/12/favicon.ico
• http://perishablepress.com/press/2007/09/25/absolute…css/favicon.ico

Clearly, none of these URL requests target the “real” favicon.ico file, yet thanks to the previous method they are all happily redirected to the proper location. This is useful for a variety of reasons, including preventing excessive and unnecessary server strain due to malicious scripts.

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For the last several months, I have been seeing an increasing number of 404 errors requesting “favicon.ico” appended onto various URLs:

http://perishablepress.com/press/favicon.ico
http://perishablepress.com/press/2007/06/12/favicon.ico
http://perishablepress.com/press/2007/09/25/absolute-horizontal-and-vertical-centering-via-css/favicon.ico
http://perishablepress.com/press/2007/08/01/temporary-site-redirect-for-visitors-during-site-updates/favicon.ico
http://perishablepress.com/press/2007/01/16/maximum-and-minimum-height-and-width-in-internet-explorer/favicon.ico

When these errors first began appearing in the logs several months ago, I didn’t think too much of it — “just another idiot who can’t find my site’s favicon..” As time went on, however, the frequency and variety of these misdirected requests continued to increase. A bit frustrating perhaps, but not serious enough to justify immediate action. After all, what’s the worst that can happen? The idiot might actually find the blasted thing? Wouldn’t that be nice..

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