Author’s Note: Considering the subject matter and length of this particular article, I’ve decided to split it into two separate articles.

Related Articles:

1. How to Fix Your Broken CMS: Part 1
2. How to Fix Your Broken CMS: Part 2

Background

In Part 1 of this series, I wrote at length about the current state of CMS software in general, and proposed a dramatic shift in our attention from features to user experience. At the end of the article, I offered a possible direction in terms of how to build a better CMS, and how we might better fulfill end user expectations (needs vs. wants).

In Part 2 of this series, I’ll be addressing the elements of what I feel would make a truly effective CMS.

Read on…

A Recipe For a Truly Effective CMS

Rather than approach a CMS as the alpha and omega of managing content, we need to approach it fundamentally: as tools to support people (and their myriad flavours of an editorial process).

Keep it simple. Keep it lean. Keep it efficient.

Ingredients

We need a few ingredients:

1. A system to facilitate the editorial workflow
2. A system to act as the delivery mechanism (loosely coupled with the presentation layer)
3. Enhanced user-profiles to determine access levels and the end user experience

Profiles

Let’s begin with the last ingredient (the element that binds all others together): the user profile.

The fundamental need here is to deliver a user-experience designed for a wide range of end users without becoming homogenous, meaning that the interface with which an editor performs her job can differ dramatically from that of an content author.

Generally speaking, a single individual can act in one or all of the following capacities:

1. The physical author of a piece of content
2. The reviewer of a body of content
3. The one delegated with the authority to promote content into another process

Note: these are fairly general roles, and granular capabilities/responsibilities/access rights should be introduced to reflect the organization’s needs.

The goal of a profile is to allow users (and those governing the process) to determine their desired user-experience based on both their role in the workflow, including selecting or customizing the interface that is ideally suited for their job function.

Everything else can be considered excess unless it promotes efficiency or enables productivity.

Example:

For simplicity’s sake, let’s assume that we’re talking about a content author—we’ll use Karen McNally as our archetype—whose only responsibility is to craft a piece of information and then promote it into the workflow.

Karen’s profile grants her access to a collection of her work (material that is still considered a work-in-progress, e.g. a “draft”), which she can edit or revise as necessary. When the piece of content is crafted and ready for review, she promotes it into the workflow.

Karen Smith has now fulfilled her fundamental role and responsibility as a content author. It is now up to another person—Michael Bloor, our ‘editor’ archetype—to review and make suggestions that she can implement.

Michael will then review Karen’s recent draft, suggest changes, contribute to the subject matter, and later promote it back into the system where it is then promoted further into the production chain.

What Karen likely sees in terms of an interface is a streamlined set of screens that:

• Allows her to quickly access her work
• Allows her to manipulate and edit her work, likely including suggestions for supporting material and media
• Allows her to “check-in” her work into the editorial workflow

In the example above, we know that Karen only needs a certain set of screens and features in order for her to fulfill her responsibility as a content author. At this point, the material is then subject to an editorial process that might repeat once or several times before it is then delegated to someone else in the workflow.

In her role, Karen has little interest in formatting for final presentation—that is someone else’s responsibility. She does care about ensuring some basic formatting to communicate the subject matter, and it’s likely that she does have an interest in providing other source material to support her work.

As for Michael, he likely sees a set of of screens that:

• Allows him to quickly access one or several drafts submitted to the editorial workflow
• Allows him to make modifications and re-assign the draft back to the original author
• Allows him to promote the draft into the production chain

In Michael’s case, he has a narrow set of responsibilities; however, his profile provides him with similar screens as Karen along with a series of screens that she would not otherwise see. On top of this fundamental difference, Michael has enhanced privileges that allow him to promote content or delegate content for other systems/processes.

The Delivery Mechanism

It’s a fundamental truth that a website will undergo change at some point—it might not be today or tomorrow—but it will likely evolve either through the introduction of new content or other factors like a redesign.

In the case of a redesign, many aspects of a website are affected: the underlying architecture, the look and feel, and in all likely hood—the content.

Considerations:

• Most CMSs tend to be focused on short-term execution, e.g. getting a website developed and running
• Most CMSs promote data-warehousing—a concept that is both dangerous in terms of potential liabilities for the organization, and inefficient in terms of productivity for the long-term users
• Most CMSs are developer-centric and unfriendly to those who are not familiar with the developer’s philosophy around content management and the resulting methodology applied to the system in question

What we’ve experienced are systems that are designed for short-terms success for a small group of users and long-term frustration for the intended users (Karen McNally and Michael Bloor in our previous example).

What we want is is a system that is still intended to facilitate the production of a website, but is a process that is loosely coupled with the task of managing content. This means that our once feature-bloated CMS should now be an efficient tool for developers and web-designers to execute the website’s look and feel and features without having to juggle data-entry at the same time.

Essentials:

• Integration with the editorial workflow
• Light replication of data in the form of content instances that can be modified according to the rules of the presentation layer (the website)
• A role-based interface for web-designers to execute the Information Architecture (IA) and Interaction Design (IxD) of the website, and apply presentation rules to content instances
• A role-based interface for developers to visually access an manipulate data specifically related to the features and functionality of the website
• An API for developers (font-end and back-end) to interact with content for enhanced presentation purposes or develop features for content dissemination

The marketers behind most CMSs tend to advertise the ability to manage all of a site’s information in one place, but they forget that information does not begin and end with the CMS. Content needs to live on in a universally accessible and secure location and should in all likelihood be subject to both the organization’s information governance policies and content strategy.

Given the above, we must now assert that a website should not to be used as an organization’s information warehouse, and that the concept of a content management system is most definitely a misnomer.

The solution that manages the nuts and bolts of a website is a system designed to do exactly that (and perhaps a little bit more if you need it to), but it should not be responsible for the long-term management of content.

This now leaves us with answering the workflow issue.

The Editorial Workflow

The editorial workflow is a system designed to support the creation and governance of content. All of the objects that comprise content (subject matter, media, resources, etc) are managed and governed by this system.

We can expect that a system like this can get convoluted and complex very quickly, but let’s distil things down to essentials before we start thinking about the additional requirements that are needed to support the essentials.

Essentials:

• Integration with desktop systems/software (e.g. minimum: importing documents into the workflow; ideal: leveraging existing software like word processors to provide a familiar interface)
• Version control and revision history to track the changes that are applied to a single unit of content
• The ability to apply a strong taxonomy with support for folksonomy
• The ability to link a unit of content with a collection of [supporting] source material (resource management)
• The ability to promote a unit or collection of content from one user to another
• Ensure access to the workflow is governed by user-profiles
• Ensure that interfaces for the workflow customized according to roles and preferences
• The ability to audit the collective content inventory (reporting)
• The ability to provide data mappings

The above list address both process and the need for flexibility for organizations that might have a strict or collaborative workflow.

Some considerations:

• Not all content is created equal, meaning that while text is the easiest to manipulate and consume, the method of presentation for the subject matter is what people experience; organizations will produce content in many forms—text being the most common—and the workflow is there to track and move it along from one process to the next. Assembly and integration into the presentation layer should handled elsewhere, e.g. promoted to another process.
• The workflow overlays the repository and it’s complexity, meaning that while content is still created by people it needs to reside somewhere and in some mutable form—a database for all intents and purposes; however, that does not mean that the complexity of the database be reflected in the user-experience. Quite the opposite is needed.

Sounds like a tall order? It’s not—the only thing that makes software complex is our unrealistic expectations. But we still need something to bridge the gap between the delivery mechanism and the editorial process.

The Secret Sauce: Data-mapping (aka, our “bridge”)

What is it?

Data mapping* is the process of creating data element mappings between two distinct data models. Data mapping is used as a first step for a wide variety of data integration tasks including:

• Data transformation or data mediation between a data source and a destination
• Identification of data relationships as part of data lineage analysis
• Discovery of hidden sensitive data such as the last four digits social security number hidden in another user id as part of a data masking or de-identification project
• Consolidation of multiple databases into a single data base and identifying redundant columns of data for consolidation or elimination

* Source: Wikipedia: Data Mapping

The point that we’re most interested in here is: “Data transformation or data mediation between a data source and a destination”

What we want to do is map content that resides in the editorial workflow to areas in the presentation layer (the website templates, pages, parts, elements, what-have-you). This means that we are only referencing the source content, storing an instance of that content, and applying presentation rules derived from the presentation layer (the website).

Let me re-iterate that: the intent is to avoid directly handling and manipulating the source material.

Further considerations:

• Instances of content are loosely-coupled, such that changes made to the source content do not necessarily affect the instance in the presentation layer until explicitly updated—we do this to preserve workflow and ensure governance
• Content changes are one-way, meaning that instances of content are just that—modification of the instances, such as formatting, do not necessarily affect the source content—we do this to maintain the integrity of the source content and ensure compliance with governance policies
• Instances are disposable, meaning that an instance of content might have a limited shelf-life; once decommissioned, the instance does not disappear completely. It still exists in it’s raw form in the editorial workflow

The reason we implement data mapping is simple: A CMS is a tactical system and should be decoupled as much as possible from the workflow, which is an operational system.

Effecting Change

For the record, this is why I think this approach would work:

1. The approach aligns with user’s needs (not wants)—we focus only on what the end user needs, and build only the features and systems that will help that end user be productive and efficient.
2. The approach bridges a fundamental gap between software and process—that is, it brings people back into the equation.
3. We are not re-inventing the wheel—that is to say that traditional models and workflows have continuously proven to work, and we can learn a lot from the hard lessons others have had to struggle through.

I originally wrote this segment of the article to reflect the top three reasons why this approach would work. Instead, I changed my mind half-way through to reflect the crux of my argument: Content begins with people and ends with people.

That is the single fundamental that we need to understand.

I wish I could simply say that the only reason why this approach would work is that, “We need it to,” but that would be pure fantasy. In the real world we’re faced with an infuriating mess of business requirements, politics, and budget constraints.

If we’re going to effect change, we need to build an effective business case that brings people back into focus, and only you—yes, you—can do that. If you’re a consumer, developer, or in a position to make these kinds of critical decisions, you have an opportunity (and responsibility to yourself and the people who work with you) to choose a better way.

What’s Left?

I’ll round this off with a challenge to the industry and to consumers. My hope is that someone with enough patience to have read through this rather long-winded series of articles, will embrace the fundamentals and concepts proposed here and evangelize them.

A Message for CMS Developers & Marketers

I am not alone in feeling that software falls short of our expectations when it comes to managing content; after all, we see content published everyday and in all manner of forms.

It should not be this painful.

As a response to the overwhelming volume of poor implementations of content management software currently being marketed, I say this:

Forget the bloated features. Forget about development paths and methodologies; spare us the complexity. The act of managing content should not be obfuscated by deep click-paths or radical dependencies upon development skills or fanatic devotion to technology—it should begin and end with the end user (we, your true customers) in mind.

We want software that helps us do our jobs better, not by imposing what you feel should be our workflow and methodology—we’ll determine that, thank you very much—but by supporting our processes with tools designed to promote efficiency and with productivity in mind.

A Message for CMS Users

We are part of the problem and we need to make a full stop. We need to re-assess our current expectations of a CMS are and what is realistic.

Forget the marketing crap. You’ve been misled.

Your CMS is broken. You know it. I know it. But does your company’s leadership—the decision-makers who bought into the CMS know it? Does your IT group resent you for having to do your job on top of dealing with their own?

You need to speak up.

You need to find a way to clearly articulate why your CMS is broken, and influence your decision makers to move in the right direction: not by wasting more time and money on trying to fix what was broken from the beginning, but by stepping back and re-evaluating expectations.

You know that you hate wasting time and feeling incompetent and frustrated—its especially frustrating when you see it done so well in other forms. You want that. And by ‘that’ you mean the process(es) that help traditional media get their content from concept to publication.

Adopting a better approach begins with knowing what you really need and tempering your expectations with pragmatism. You need to build a compelling business case for change.

Note: this should really be a screen cast – next time

Custom IA Shapes with a Dialog/Prompt

One of the primary building blocks of any information architecture is the shape that represents a page concept. There are some great stencils out there for Visio that other designers have put together, but you’ll find that maintaining these shapes (when on page) can be laborious given how Visio constructs its geometry.

One of the time savers that can be leveraged is the use of “Shape Data” to add custom information to a shape, and “Shape Graphics” to display the custom information. One other feature that can be leveraged is the customization of “Shape Sheet” information to provide dialog support.

What is a Data Graphic?

Microsoft Office Visio 2007 Professional offers new ways for businesses to visualize information. New data connectivity, data linking, and data refresh features enable users to more easily connect to external data and associate it with specific shapes in a drawing, and to more easily refresh the data manually or automatically. The Data Graphics feature presents linked data and other shape information graphically in a diagram. Together, these capabilities make it faster and easier to communicate important information for making decisions and taking actions.Source: MSDN – Office Developer Center

In short: Data Graphics provide visualization capabilities to represent data in a meaningful way.

You can download the example for this tutorial here.

Getting Started:

Software: I’m working with a copy of Visio 2007, and so some of the concepts might be labelled differently in older versions of the software. Consult your product documentation if need help finding the features.

Step 1: Preparing the shape

You can approach this step in one of two ways: start from scratch or attempt to modify an existing shape (as long as its not leveraging Data Graphics already).

For the purpose of this tutorial, we’ll be starting from scratch, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t skip this step and apply the later principles to your existing shapes.

Moving on…

Creating the shape

You’re going to need a shape. The most basic shape you may want to use is a rectangle to represent a page (the orientation is up to you). Start off by drawing a simple rectangle using Visio’s drawing tools. I have my page units set to inches, so a simple 1”x .7” rectangle is what I’ll make.

You can apply some basic effects to the shape such as rounded corners. For this one, I’ll use a .5pt corner radius.

Fig. 1 – The basic shape.

Now, the thing about Visio shapes is that you can automatically input text by typing while the the object is selected. This is the default behaviour for nearly all Visio stencils that I have come across.

Fig. 2 – Inputting text.

For the most part this is a good thing, but for what we want to create, it’s important we avoid this behavior. The layout of the labels is important for legibility, urging some clever designers to create complex shapes that will group a number of text fields arranged to display bits of info for the shape. This is where things tend to become unmanageable.

Moving on…

Adding Glue Points

You may not be familiar with Visio “Glue Points”, but you’re certainly familiar with how they work. “Glue Points” are those tiny dots that look like shape handles on a given shape. These dots are anchor points for objects to connect to each other.

You can add glue points to your shape by using the Connection Point tool located on your toolbar here:

Fig. 3 – The “Connection Point Tool”.

Note: Ctrl+Click anywhere within the shape to add a new glue point.

Once you’ve done that, your shape is pretty much ready to go.

Fig. 4 – The result after adding glue points.

Step 2: Adding Shape Data

As stated before, Shape Data is little more than additional information that can be dynamically added to a given shape. In this case we want to add some basic information to our shape that we would normally enter by hand.

Here are the fields:

1. ID – the numeric or text-based identifier for the shape
2. Label – the label that you want to display, e.g. “home”, “about”, “contact”, etc.
3. Type – This is something we’ll save for another tutorial, add it for now

You can access the Shape Data dialog by first selecting the shape you created in Step 1, and going to your menu under Data>Shape Data. The alternate way of accessing the interface is by right-clicking to show the context menu (on the shape) and navigating to Data>Shape Data.

You’ll be presented with a prompt if there is no Shape Data available (there shouldn’t be)

Fig. 1 – The Shape Data prompt.

Click “yes” to bring up the Shape Data interface.

Fig. 2 – The Shape Data dialog.

Now that you have the interface up, start by entering the fields (mentioned above). What you’ll notice that there are two similar fields: “Label” and “Name”. What’s the difference? The “Label” is what will be displayed on the shape (and referenced in a later step), and the “Name” is what you’ll need to use if you’re programming with Visio.

Fig. 3 – The result after adding custom properties.

This is how you can accomplish this:

1. Prefix each of the above fields with “str_”, e.g “str_id” or for “ID” use “UID”
2. Ensure that each of these items has a “Type” set to string. You can customize the format as you see fit by clicking on the button beside “Format”
3. Provide a default value in the “Value” field, e.g. “[Page Name]”
4. Provide a brief message in the “Prompt” field – remember, you’re the one that’ll be prompted, so I suggest that you not annoy yourself needlessly
5. The “Sort Key” will accept either a, b, c or 1, 2, 3 – the idea being that you set the properties in the order you’d prefer them to appear
6. Lastly, check the “Ask on drop” checkbox – this is what will force a prompt to be displayed when you add the shape to your sheet, duplicate, or when you copy/paste it
7. Hit “Okay” when you’re done

That’s it for the adding custom Shape Data to your shape. Now the trickery comes in when we’re attempting to display the data on our shape. Enter Data Graphics.

Step 3: Applying Data Graphics to a Shape

Ok. This is the point where things get a little interesting as later steps will require a little manual labour to format the data and lay it out a little better that what Visio automatically creates for you.

This is how you can accomplish this:

1. Select your shape, and go to your main menu and select Data>Display Data on Shapes”. Alternately you can right-click to bring up the context menu and select Data>Edit Data Graphic…

2. And new panel should have appeared on the right hand side of your Visio working area (default). This is the Data Graphics panel where you’ll create the labels to be displayed on your shape

3. Select “New Data Graphic…” under “Create a new data graphic”

4. A new dialog window will appear

Fig. 1 – the New Data Graphic dialog.

Now that you have the dialog up, you’ll notice that there’s nothing there. That’s what you want. Follow the instructions to “Click ‘new item’ to display data on shapes”. You’ll find that drop down menu on the top left of the dialog window.

When you display the menu, you’ll have several options that are available to you. For the purpose of what we’re creating, you’ll only want to select the first item. The rest, you can experiment with on your own.

The item will invoke a new prompt (Microsoft is obsessed with this).

This is how you can accomplish this:

1. There are several fields that are available to you, the one you’ll start with first is the “Data field”
2. If you recall earlier when you were setting the key/value pairs in the Shape Data dialog, you should notice the same items available to you when you click on the drop down menu. Select “ID”
3. Turn your attention to the “Callout” field – this is where you can specify a style for the label. I suggest that you stick with a Text callout due to the nature of what we’re building. Experiment with the other types when you have a chance
4. Next, let’s look at the “Callout position”. You’ll notice that the two drop downs: “horizontal”, and “vertical” fields are greyed out. Uncheck “Use default position”
5. You should now have access to the two fields. Set the horizontal position to “center” and leave the vertical position where it is

This next part can be a bit confusing the first time around, but follow these steps:

1. Leave the “Show Value” property as “Yes”
2. Leave the “Value Format” property as blank, it will automatically use the format you set earlier in the Shape Data dialog
3. Leave the “Label Position” property with its default
4. Delete the “[Default]” value from the “Label” property
5. Set the “Border Property” value to “None”
6. Leave both “Fill Type” and “Callout Offset” at “None”
7. Click “OK” to set your changes

You should be back to the “New Data Graphic” dialog. Now that you’ve done the first one, rinse and repeat for the other fields.

Note: When you come to the “Type” field, set the “Show Value” property as “No”.

Click the “OK” button to apply the Data Graphic to your shape.

Fig. 2 – The result after the Data Graphic fields have been set.

Step 4: Formatting Your New Labels

We now have an opportunity to adjust the layout of our new Data Graphic’s labels. If you’ve followed the steps above, you’ll have accomplished something that approximates this:

Fig. 3 – The result after formatting the fields.

If you recall the alignment we left in Step 3, you’ll see that reflected in the orientation of the labels. It’s not pretty, but if you’re partial to that, feel free to keep the alignment and move on to the last step. If however, you are like me, you’ll want to make some minor tweaks.

Click on the object until you’re able to select the text field containing one of the fields. Once you’ve selected the field, you can format it as you wish (color, fonts, font size, etc.). It’s likely that you’ll want to adjust the alignment at the very least (centered).

Rinse and repeat for the the “Label” field.

You should now have a Visio shape that you can quickly set the properties for when you add it to your pages and diagrams.

Note: There is one caveat though, and you’ll have to balance this with what you’re getting in return: you may find that having constant prompts will annoy you especially if you need to work quickly or you’re not the type of user to have your pinkie you the “esc” key. You can avoid this by not enabling an automatic prompt, I’ll leave that to you to decide.

Step 5: Adjusting the Behaviour of the Shape

This last (and final) step is the most crucial aspect of making a truly (re)usable Visio shape. It’s important because it will allow the author or designer to quickly make modifications to the Shape Data without having to manually click through the shape’s various objects.

We’re going to tackle this in two ways:

1. Enable a custom double-click behaviour to the shape that will display the shape’s Shape Data dialog.
2. Restrict the default editing and formatting features of shape to preserve the Data Graphics we’ve attached to the shape.

Restricting Editing and Formatting

All Visio shapes share common properties that you can customize in order to get the behaviour you want from it. If you recall from earlier in the article where we were first creating the shape, it was easy to simply double-click and start entering text. In this case, what we want to do is restrict some of the normal behaviour of the shape, and not allow the author to input text directly onto the shape. We also want to restrict the author from modifying the internal layout of the shape and the Data Graphics.

Follow these quick steps to accomplish the desired behaviour:

1. Right-click on your shape to bring up the context menu, and select Format>Behaviour
2. The “Behaviour” tab will contain all the common behaviour properties of the shape; turn your attention to the “Group Behaviour” options on the bottom right portion of the dialog.
3. Deselect “Edit text of group”
4. Under the “Selection” property, change the setting to “Group Only” – this will restrict the selection of nested shapes and make the overall shape appear as if it is the only selectable shape.
5. Click “OK”

Fig. 1 – Accessing the “Behaviour” dialog through the context menu.

Fig. 2 – The “Behaviour” dialog after properties have been set.

Enabling Custom Double-click Behaviour

If you took some time in the to explore the behaviour dialog, you’ll have noticed the “Double-click” tab. That particular set of properties allows you to attach some typical behaviours to the shape, but you’ll also notice that the “Custom” option is greyed out. We want to be able to set this, but Visio will not allow us to do it through the dialog.

Note: It took me about 3 days to figure this out, not having really delved too deeply into Visio’s Shape Sheet capabilities, so hopefully someone will read this post and save someone else like me a little grief.

The “Custom” option is greyed out for reason, and it appears that customization means delving into the murky depths of Visio’s “Shape Sheets”. It’s not as bad as I make it out (I’m still harbouring a little frustration), and it’s a relatively painless task to complete.

Follow these quick instructions to accomplish this time-saving behaviour:

1. Right-click on your shape and select “Show Shape Sheet”. This will bring up a new window which you will find chock full various property sheets.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the list until you find one property sheet labelled “Events” – this is crucial.
   Note: If you cannot see an “Events” sheet, that means it’s hidden. To show the “Events” sheet, simply right-click somewhere in the grey area outside of the various property sheets, and select “View Sections” from the context menu. You’ll find a collection of checkboxes that indicate the different sheets. Find the “Event” sheet and enable it by selecting the checkbox. Hit “OK” to return back to the Shape Sheet window.
3. In the “Events” sheet, locate a property labelled “EventDblClick” – this is where we instruct the shape what to do when we double-click on it. Enter the following value (case sensitive): “=DOCMD(1312)” (replace everything in the field including the equal sign, but do not include the quotes). Hit the Enter button to accept the changes.
4. Close the Shape Sheet window as we no longer need it.

Fig. 3 – The “Events” property sheet.

If you’ve followed the instructions above, you should expect to see the Shape Data dialog window pop up. Test this behaviour on your customized shape by double-clicking.

That’s it. You now have a shape that you can make your diagram work a little more productive.

Final Notes

Shape Data

There are many other purposes for which Shape Data can be leveraged. If you recall one of the properties that I specified early on was “type”. I’ll save that for a later posting, but if you search Google for the term “Visio multi-shape”, you’ll get an idea of what I’ll be covering next.

Data Graphics

The one thing I likely did not articulate in this article was that Data Graphics can be reused and re-applied to other shapes that you might want to display similar Shape Data. The caveat being that you’ll have to re-format the fields for each one again. You can create new Data Graphics as you need them, but be sure to keep your document as clean as possible of unnecessary clutter. You can do this by going to File>Remove Hidden Information. I’ll leave the rest for you to figure out.

Events & Behaviours

There are many other behaviours that you can attach to shape events, and double-click is just one of those. For more information about Visio’s DOCMD() macro, check out the MSDN documentation here.

Conclusion

This won’t make you a better UX designer by any means, but it can certainly help you save some time so you can focus on what’s important. Take some time to consider some of the other customization features you can apply to your shape, but remember: as is often the case, simplicity is the goal.

You can download the example for this tutorial here.

Change is good.

What’s New?

A number of things have changed over the past few months — my current circumstances not withstanding — I’m now in the position where I’m able to take on consulting work and wanted to communicate that fundamental change on many levels (the most obvious place to start being my blog, of course).

I’ve talked about shifting focuses on this site for the last couple of years, but never had the time or need to push the change forward. I do now and what you’re looking at is the result. Where before my blog mostly concentrated on the things that interest me (it still does), it’s taken second stage to the need to showcase my work in a meaningful way.

You can learn more about what I offer as a consultant here, but if you’re more interested in the work I’ve done, you can take a look at a cross section of that material here.

What To Expect

I’ll still be continuing my series on WordPress Theme Development and the ongoing updates to some of the other minor series, but I will also be posting about the work I’ve completed in the form of case studies. My hope is that I can share some of my experience in a way that is meaningful (without putting me out of work ).

About This Theme

This new WordPress theme is called “Dusk”, currently at version 0.5, as I’m quite sure there will be a number of tweaks to the design and features over the coming weeks.

It’s possible that I will release this theme to the public in a year or so when I’m ready to re-design – or perhaps I’ll market it as a premium theme (who knows). But I do plan to release it at some point as I have with my other themes.

The Design Concept

The inspiration for this new theme came largely from watercolour paintings – mostly the texture and the vibrancy of colours, but also the techniques involved in working with the medium.

I felt that it would be a strong juxtaposition to the more technical and rigid structure of the content – one balancing the other. The primary focus of this theme is showcasing my work first and my writing second. The layout for the main page was given a unique structure most appropriate to the type of blended content without overpower the other.

Behind The Design

“Dusk” is based on the 960px grid concept and implemented using Blueprint CSS. I’ve been focusing on Blueprint CSS lately as it (amongst others) expedites some of the common CSS development tasks, allowing me to focus on ensuring the creative aspects of a design aren’t compromised. This of course assumes that the design adheres to the 960px grid concept (and this one does).

Final Thoughts

If you’re interested in how I might help your project succeed, I can help you in one capacity or another. Don’t hesitate to ask

The math makes my head hurt already.

If any when you do manage to find a handful of solutions that you feel might answer your particular needs, your challenge will be in settling on one system out of many. How do you decide what stays and what goes?

Here are some of the top three myths that lead people astray:

Myth No. 3 — A CMS is ready “out of the box”.

General Perception:

Content Management Systems provide website administrators with everything they need to launch, manage, and maintain a website with little to no effort.

Reality Check:

Launching a website is never as easy as 1, 2, 3.

The level of effort and resources required to get a CMS up and running corresponds directly to the business requirements of the site, and size/complexity of the CMS.

Forget what was advertized on the box.

If you’re in a position where you’re still thinking about which CMS to go with, consider talking to customers who are actively using the software. Compare notes. Ask specifically about how key features worked for them or more importantly, what didn’t work for them and why.

This is a good opportunity to consider your own requirements for needing a CMS. It’s easy to get lost in all the hype and lose sight of why you needed it in the first place, so put your needs into writing and use your list as a guide post when evaluating features.

Myth No. 2 — Anyone can use a CMS.

General Perception:

“If you can use MS Word, you can use a CMS”.

Reality Check:

Understand that every CMS subscribes to a different philosophy when it comes to working with content. The methodology behind the workflow might make sense for one group and be totally alien to another, which makes it more difficult when you’re attempting to do feature comparisons (ultimately, they all follow a few common strategies).

It comes down to the User Experience.

You cannot legitimately equate the whole experience of using a CMS to something like MS Word. You can legitimately equate a feature of the CMS to MS Word (if it exists).

The User Experience between a system like “Joomla!”, “Magnolia”, or “Drupal” are dramatically different. I won’t get too deep into the how and why of things, but suffice to say that if your comparison between package was based only on side-by-side comparisons of their interfaces, you’d immediately see how different they are from each other.

Consider who will actually be using the CMS. Is it a group of developers or is it a group off general staffers tasked with the responsibility? Think about the end user here; it’s not the site visitor who will be directly affected by the CMS, but the people managing the content.

What kind of interface are they most comfortable using (WYSIWYG, form based, code)? Do any of them have working experience with HTML, CSS or a scripting language?

This is your red flag.

Stop.

Take a step back and look to your content team — get their input.

Myth No. 1 — A CMS should manage everything.

General Perception:

Content Management Systems are designed to manage all of a website’s content and features.

Reality Check:

Content Management Systems come in all flavours, but not one of them handles every facet of a website in an elegant manner (thus the reasons for Myth No. 2, 3).

I’m not quite sure how this myth started, but I’m sure anyone who has had the opportunity to work with a CMS understands this: there is an expectation that a CMS has the ability manage the content of every single asset, feature, function, or concept in a given website.

This is so – dangerously – far from the truth.

Think about it this way: Your CMS does not define your website.

Read that last sentence again. Memorize it for the next time you’re making recommendations to your clients or shopping around for yourself.

A CMS is designed to help you manage content, but unless engineered to be, two websites are never the same beast. Content volume, features, design, strategies can vary wildly, and so it is next to impossible to have a single CMS (out of the box) manage every aspect of a website without running into the need to extend, include plug-ins, or write unique code to support the site’s particular requirements.

Consider that feat the Holy Grail of all CMS.

Be realistic about what you need a CMS to do. Think about the content of your site, and if you haven’t already, consider bringing on a Content Strategist to help you define the Information Architecture.

An important thing you should try to understand is that you don’t need one tool to manage everything – in the real world, you need a toolbox full of the the most reliable, appropriate tools to help you manage your website content.

Things to consider when you do manage to find a suitable CMS.

It’s easy to get misled by the marketing and hype, and technical jargon around a CMS. If you can only remember three things before you start searching, keep the following in mind:

1. Find a tool that your organization can implement: Speak to your development team/IT to get a realistic scope on what it will take to get up and running.
2. Realize who will actually use the software: Most importantly, interview your content management group to find out what their expectations (and level of experience) is with a CMS or similar software.
3. Develop a content strategy: Interview the key stakeholders to find out what the common needs are, and what the business requirements are for the website – don’t engineer your content to fit the limitations of one tool.

Ultimately speaking, a CMS is just one tool for the task of managing the content of your website, and sometimes you need different tools to do the job. There is no doubt that finding the right tool is going to be an easy task – expect a difficult road – but with a little forethought, some planning, and a good understanding of your needs (not wants), choosing a CMS will be less painful in the long run.

While I’m an ardent supporter of promoting the WordPress platform any way I can, the contest documentation sent up red flags after the first and second read through:

1. The rules for entry had been modified once (noted by the site owners) ;
2. The foundation of the contest is rooted in the participant submitting a “concept” but later defines a concept as being a production comp.
3. There’s a fairly ambiguous panel of judges as implied by, “Designs are assessed by a special team from ColorLabs Project…”  — who are these people?
4. Lastly, this: “You understand that by participating in this contest, your theme concept is possibly used by ColorLabs Project and may be made available for purchase on our site. Winners will be awarded a cash prize for their work. Any other theme concept will only be made available for purchase after a once-off fee agreed by both parties. Sales generated off the theme will be kept by the company.”

Get Your Story Straight:

First off, if you’re going to launch a contest, make damn sure that the language surrounding the rules and regulations, as well as the terms and conditions are as clear as you can possibly be. I say this as a a Creative Director and planner who has been involved in advertising campaigns that were build around some hefty prizes. Nothing makes a contest go south faster than poorly written contest literature. Once you post those rules, you had better ensure they are final. I can’t speak for the legal ramifications of changing contest details mid-way through, but I can say there’s a significat level of trust that is lost in having to do so.

Concept vs. Concept Art

Second, a Concept is quite different from Concept Art. Be sure what you’re asking participants for. A Concept, e.g. an idea — is typically something you solicit in written form. Concept Art is visual. In a design contest like this (and considering the last condition in the T&C), asking for a visual concept without providing appropriate conditions to protect the artist’s work is borderline unethical. There is nothing to prevent the contest hosts from turning around and re-creating the concept art into production-ready source files. Participants should be well aware of this possibility.

Industry Peers/Professionals or Your Grandmother?

Third, who the heck are the judges? While there is nothing wrong with not disclosing the judging panel to the general public — to me, there’s a level of trust that a contest host can provide through disclosure. Quite frankly, are the members of the judging panel qualified to act as judges given the criteria? This is pretty grey-area from my experience.

Exactly How Are You Planning To Use My Work?

Lastly, the final condition on the T&C is loosely worded, and relinquishes — as I understand it — a considerable amount of the artist’s rights to the contest host. While on the surface, there is nothing essentially wrong with this practice, but it leaves me questioning the ethics of amassing a royalties-free library of design for resale. On one hand, it may be quite alright to capitalize on the award-winning themes as well as the runners-up, but what of the rest? Are the remaining “unqualified” designs to be saved for later resale or are they to be destroyed? What about compensation for artist? The language surrounding this particular conditions is a little vague.

In any case, I’m not a lawyer — just someone who really wanted to participate in a contest, but unfortunately this one comes off as a scam poorly disguised as a contest. What’s next: timeshares in the Bahamas?

Seriously though, if you are considering participation in any contest of this kind — take the time to educate yourself on your rights as an artist/designer and pay particular attention to the organizers of the contest. At the end of the day you’ll need to judge for yourself whether or not a contest is legitimate and what your work is worth.

Understandably, this is a touchy standpoint to take depending on who you talk to. From a design and creative perspective, one could argue that it’s all about the ideas; and from a development perspective, one could argue, equally, that the technology drives the creative.

I don’t see that either argument is truly wrong; rather, it has been my experience that creative ideas that steam ahead without regard for the technology required to execute the idea, have typically run amok. This is a lesson that I’m forced to re-iterate whenever I start on a new project.

The road to project hell

When I’m involved in any sort of discussion around creative for online media, one of my first questions is always, “how is it supposed to work?”

Depending on how that question is answered, three typical scenarios arise:

1. People will hedge around the issue of technology and gloss over it with a dismissive, “let’s address that later — this is creative discussion,” response.
2. The “build it and they will come” syndrome rears its ugly head once again (this is, by far, my personal favourite and one that I’d put money on if the occasion presents itself).
3. Technical members of a team are conveniently uninvited from the next few meetings until the concept is baked, and only once it’s ready to go into development are they brought back into the mix.

Follow any of the above scenarios — unimpeded — to their natural conclusion, and the result is an uncomfortable, awkward discussion with the client about how the concept needs to be revisited.

This is the not-so-fun part where I usually get dragged back into the mix to help sort things out. For some reason — and despite my best efforts — the same issues come up time and again.

(At this point I usually excuse myself for a sanity check.)

Seriously, how many awkward client conversations does it take for folks to realize the pattern? How much more of a projects’ profit margin need to be consumed before the red flags start to go up? What about the impact to public/client perception of the creative company as a whole?

Rock the boat

When it comes to online media, it is naive to foster the notion that separating the creative from the technical is sound practice.

If you find yourself in a scenario such as the ones I mentioned earlier, consider the following:

1. Challenge the assumptions and address the issue head-on. There are solid technical solutions to creative challenges, and just because the problem cannot be solved one way does not immediately discount the possibility of it being solved in some other manner. Engage the creative process with a healthy amount of pragmatism.
2. Web-projects need strategy, planning, and enough time to execute effectively. Very few online experiences/applications are instant hits. The rare ones that are (Twitter, FaceBook, BaseCamp, etc), have strategy and planning behind them, each with enough time to evolve. Do not be afraid to play the devil’s advocate and ask the tough questions.
3. Designing and conceptualizing in a silo is rarely ever effective. External input (partial or impartial) can be the difference between having to call a client and tell them you can’t execute on what you proposed, and taking the kernel of an idea and pushing it in a direction previously not considered. Keep your technical team involved as much as possible — they are the last ones who have to execute the concept.

When asked, this is how I consider being able to “do better work”:

If a creative team can accept the notion that separating the creative from the technical is folly, the possibility of conceptualizing better ideas and solutions (stronger creative) is all the more tangible.

Perhaps I am over-simplifying the issue (clients do play a big role in contributing to the issue as well), and there are many other considerations, but all of that aside, at some point common sense needs to prevail.

So what’s new?

A lot of things I suppose, but mostly I’ve been busy as hell. There have been some recent changes in my company that have left me running a little ragged here; and while I sense there is much change on the horizon — the horizon is still quite a ways off.

I’ve been toying around with a new Blog Theme, a dramatic departure from this current theme. At some point this summer I will block off a few days to finish the design and development of the theme and incorporate some new features into it. I’ve also been toying around with the idea of turning my blog into a sketch-blog and posting up my portfolio once and for all (it’s been in development for nearly a year). It might sound a little ambitious, but I will get to it one way or another.

I have not forgotten about farfromfearless.com. I’ll be around.

Oh, I’ve been doing stuff like this when the occasion presents itself:

I fully intend to release it as open source.

The problem isn’t so much that I don’t have the skill to do it my self, it is that this application requires a level of artistry with code that I have not yet accomplished with one language (C++). And so, finding a developer with the level of skill has proven to be quite a task.

Sure, I’ve considered using online services like RentACoder, or GoFreelance and their like — but the problem with services such as those, is that you inevitably find a whole world full of ambitious developers eager to bid on your work, get the job done, and move on. That does not mean the work is top-notch, or that they are remotely interested in why I want to have the application developed.

Who can blame them? They are, after all, trying to eck out a living. And in the grand scheme of things, my application is just another grain of sand on the beach. But not to me.

So I am left with two choices: the first is to develop it myself, and through much trial and error, create something that modestly resembles what I had in mind; the second is to keep waiting, be patient, and hope that I stumble across a developer willing to work with me.

I can do it. I can be patient. But I don’t want to be, so I am asking for some help.

If you are a developer who, like me, sees the beauty in code. If you have no reservations about releasing the product of our collaboration to the world (the world in this case being creative writers), with no intentions of profit — contact me. I want to work with you

This is not a good thing considering I the external drive was both my external storage and "backup" device. I use the term "backup" loosely as I don’t actually have a consistent backup policy. You would think I would have a policy considering I’m quite diligent about backups and redundancy for my professional work. But I don’t.

So now I am left with the dilemma of choosing between a very expensive data recovery service of which there is only a marginal chance of retrieving any of my data intact, or walking away from this small catastrophe and chalking it all up to a lesson learned. This is not enjoyable at all.

While I have yet to come to a resolution on that particular dilemma, I thought I might take a little time to expound (a little) on the benefits of developing a backup and redundancy policy. This is just a fancy way of me trying to encourage other writers to take the time to backup their work and ensure it is somewhere relatively safe.

So first off let’s consider offsite storage:

Don’t take your work for granted. If you’re a writer, a creative professional, or just have work that you do in your spare time which you value — don’t take it for granted that where you store your files locally is ever safe. As experience has recently taught me, anything can happen. In my case it was a simple mistake of plugging in the wrong power adapter to my external hard drive. I can only imagine other scenarios where data might be lost through carelessness, neglect, or by accident/design.

Second, if you value your work or value the time you invest into your work, consider investing a little bit of cash into offsite (typically online) data storage. Here is a brief list of services which others have recommended and which I am currently investigating (descriptions lifted from their sites):

1. SyncToy by MicroSoft – a free PowerToy that provides an easy to use, highly customizable program that helps users to do the heavy lifting involved with the copying, moving, and synchronization of different directories. Most common operations can be performed with just a few clicks of the mouse, and additional customization is available without added complexity.
2. Mozy – a simple and safe way to back up all the important stuff on your computer. A copy of your data is stored in a secure, remote location for safekeeping, so that in the event of disaster your data is still retrievable.
3. XDrive – the best alternative to other storage devices. Get easy backup and more secure storage with protection for your precious files. And all of this without the worry of losing or damaging a piece of hardware.

Caveat emptor: As always, be sure to read the EULA (end user licence agreement) or the terms of service and privacy policy before agreeing to use any online service. This is important as you need to ensure the rights of your work remain yours while sitting on some remote server. Understand what you or the service provider are responsible for and work accordingly.

Let’s also consider a version control system:

For those who do not get that warm and fuzzy feeling about offline storage services, you may want to consider developing your own backup service. This isn’t particularly easy — as most things to do with backup — but it is not impossible and in the long run, this will go a long way to developing a better sense of security when it comes to your work.

Here’s what you may want to consider when developing a personalized backup system:

A hosting package: The monthly cost of hosting is minimal these days and you can get away with setting up a decent hosting package for the price of a Starbucks Latté and cookie (not including initial setup fees). Here are a couple hosting providers that I have dealt with in the past:

• BlueHost.com
• DreamHost.com

A version control system: Okay, I know I’m on shaky ground here and many of you might be thinking this is overkill or way too technical for you — to be honest, you may be right. But this might also be exactly what you might need.

A version control system like "Subversion" is used by developers (and creative professionals), to create incremental versions of files they are currently working on. The most typical use is for code files (HTML, CSS, PHP, etc,). But this does not preclude you from using the system for other files (images, text, word docs, etc,). The beauty of a version control system is that is is both offsite and automatically creates versions for you. Not only that, but with most version control systems you can roll-back to earlier versions of a file (or group of files).

Developer services: setting up a version control system is not as easy as installing software on your computer, but in most cases you can hire the services of a local developer or alternately ask your service provider to help you set it up. Connecting with the system may require you to install a client, but once you get those components set up (and with some basic training), you should have little problem with backing up your files.

Things to consider

Though I’ve discussed — in general — a couple methods for backing up your files and handling version control, it is nothing without diligence. The lack of diligence is what landed me in this pickle in the first place, and I should know better consider the work I do professionally. It is not an easy thing to develop new habits, but if you are serious about protecting the integrity of your work, it is time well spent. I won’t go into detail about how you should accomplish this — that is up to you — but I can tell you that even if you haven’t lost work recently, you should consider it a dangerous probability. In the end, there are no true guarantees with ephemeral things such as digital files, but you can work to ensure that you minimize the risk of loss or damage.

Further reading

Matt Jadud discusses the topic of backups at length on his blog, which covers some of the more complex issues surrounding backups than I am disposed to exploring at this moment. Most of this was written a few years ago, but the principles there are still valuable.

The original incarnation of the boxes used mark-up that while structurally valid, was fairly complex. It seemed to render well on newer browsers, but fell apart on older browsers and appeared to be a hog to render.

This was the original mark-up and CSS required to render it:

<!-- set box -->
<div id="box-test">
	<div class="box">
		<div class="box-top">
			<div class="box-top-right">
				<div class="box-top-body"><h3 class="title">Search</h3></div>
			</div>
		</div>
		<div class="box-body">
			<p>Content goes here...</p>
		</div>
		<div class="box-bottom">
			<div class="box-bottom-right">
				<div class="box-bottom-body"></div>
			</div>
		</div>
	</div>
</div>
<!-- end box -->

/* Box Class
---------------------------------------------------------- */

.box {
	/* testing
	border: 1px dotted pink;*/
}

.box .title {
	margin: 7px 0 0 0; padding: 0;
	height: 30px;
	font-family: 'Tahoma', Lucida Grande, Verdana, Aria, Sans-Serif;
	font-size: .9em;
	color: #ffffff;
	/*text-indent: -9999px;
	 testing
	border: 1px dotted pink; */
}

.box-top {
	display: block;
	margin: 0; padding: 0;
	width: 100%; height: 30px;
	background: transparent url(../lemon_twist/images/box_top_left.png) no-repeat top left;
	/* testing
	border: 1px dotted pink; */
}

.box-top-right {
	display: block; float: right;
	margin: 0; padding: 0;
	width: 100%; height: 30px;
	background: transparent url(../lemon_twist/images/box_top_right.png) no-repeat top right;
	/* testing
	border: 1px dotted blue; */
}

.box-top-body {
	display: block; float: left;
	margin: 0 0 0 32px; padding: 0;
	width: 85%; height: 30px;
	background: transparent url(../lemon_twist/images/box_top_body.png) repeat-x top right;

	/* testing
	border: 1px dotted blue; */
}

.box-body {
	margin: 0; padding: 20px 20px 0 20px;
	background-color: #688a02;
	color: #ffffff;
	/* testing
	border: 1px dotted blue; */
}

.box-bottom {
	display: block;
	margin: 0 0 10px 0; padding: 0;
	width: 100%; height: 20px;
	background: transparent url(../lemon_twist/images/box_bottom_left.png) no-repeat bottom left;
	/* testing
	border: 1px dotted blue; */
}

.box-bottom-right {
	display: block; float: right;
	margin: 0; padding: 0;
	width: 100%; height: 20px;
	background: transparent url(../lemon_twist/images/box_bottom_right.png) no-repeat bottom right;
	/* testing
	border: 1px dotted blue; */
}

.box-bottom-body {
	display: block; float: left;
	margin: 0 0 0 20px; padding: 0;
	width: 85%; height: 20px;
	background: transparent url(../lemon_twist/images/box_bottom_body.png) repeat-x bottom right;

	/* testing
	border: 1px dotted blue; */
}

Seem a little on the excessive side? I thought so after revisiting this particular issue recently. This approach wasn’t terrible; it just wasn’t extensible and required more mark-up on page than I really cared for. My approach above required that I utilize multiple image sets for different column widths in my layout. Exporting and keeping track of those images was a small chore, and I really wanted to come up with something that was both low-maintenance and low-overhead.

I refactored both the markup and the CSS as follows:

<!-- set search -->
<div id="search" class="box">
	<div class="one-col box-top"><h3 class="box-title">Search</h3></div>

	<div class="one-col box-body">
		<p>Cotent goes here...</p>
	</div>

	<div class="one-col box-bottom"></div>
</div>
<!-- end search -->

/* Box Class
---------------------------------------------------------- */
.box {
	/* testing
	border: 1px dotted pink;*/
}

.box-title {
	margin: 0; padding: 8px 0 0 30px;
	font-family: 'Tahoma',Lucida Grande,Verdana,Aria,Sans-Serif;
	font-size: .9em;
	color: #ffffff;
	/*text-indent: -9999px;
	 testing
	border: 1px dotted pink; */
}

.box-top {
	display: block;
	margin: 0; padding: 0;
	width: 100%; height: 30px;
	/* testing
	border: 1px dotted pink; */
}

.box-body {
	margin: 0; padding: 1px 0 0 0;
	background-color: #688a02;
	color: #ffffff;
	/* testing
	margin: 0; padding: 20px 20px 0 20px;
	border: 1px dotted blue; */
}

.box-bottom {
	display: block;
	margin: 0 0 10px 0; padding: 0;
	width: 100%; height: 20px;
	/* testing
	border: 1px dotted blue; */
}

.one-col.box-top {
	background: transparent url("images/1col_box_top.png") no-repeat top left;
}

.two-col.box-top {
	background: transparent url("images/2col_box_top.png") no-repeat top left;
}

.three-col.box-top {
	background: transparent url("images/3col_box_top.png") no-repeat top left;
}

.one-col.box-bottom {
	background: transparent url("images/1col_box_bottom.png") no-repeat top left;
}

.two-col.box-bottom {
	background: transparent url("images/2col_box_bottom.png") no-repeat top left;
}

.three-col.box-bottom {
	background: transparent url("images/3col_box_bottom.png") no-repeat top left;
}

With the above approach, I significantly reduced the amount of code needed to display multiple boxes, as well as reducing the complexity of the CSS rules needed to render the boxes. As a further benefit to this second approach, I am also able to render the boxes at multiple widths based on my current layout, and reduce the number of graphics required for each part of the box.

There are a few caveats to this approach; the most significant being that the images required for the different columns are dependent on the layout. Most of the rounded-corner examples I’ve come across have been able to scale dynamically — a great benefit, but one that I decided to sacrifice in favour of a light-weight implementation.

While I have no interest in going into a debate over which approach is better — I will say that, this approach worked for this layout and design.

Playing mp3 file metallica mp3 (by WinAmp Windows WordPress Plugin)

In terms of design work, all it takes these days is a screenshot or two and there goes weeks if not months worth of work. Not only that, but the results of the misappropriated (read: stolen and terribly reproduced) work, are beyond insult. I have seen layouts and templates that I’ve designed show up on forums along with a handful of websites of international design or development “agencies”. Each one looking like the low-resolution screenshot was blown up or jpg artifacting being used as some bizarre “design technique”.

About the same time I came to a second conclusion: I’ve been looking at this dilemma all wrong. I figure, hell, why bother wasting energy and time trying to protect work that for the most part will never see the light of day?

Here’s another way of looking at it: If you intend on publishing work for the world to see – and chances are you’re going to be ripped off at some point – why not take a pre-emptive step and share it with the community?

Risky? Certainly.

With the exception of client-work, it is contrary to my nature to share my production files. The thought of it makes me cringe a little. The idea that some other designer out there in the world butchering my work and doing things to it that I would never want to consider, makes me want to curl up inside and resort to being a source-miser. My Photoshop files, the color schemes or vector work being torn apart and remade into some Frankenstein monstrosity – I could go on, but I think you get the point.

In any case, it comes down to a matter of perspective. There are designers out there who are going to butcher my work. There are hacks out there that are going to do nasty things to my files and repurpose them for ungodly means. But I accept that because there is also a designer out there trying to become a better designer. There is someone out there who wants to see how another designer might build a file. Perhaps they only want to peruse the PSD’s layers in order to understand how a button was built, or how a template might better be constructed for production.

The best part is that without knowing what or if they handled my files, I might very well meet that designer down the road. “That designer” – may well be a very talented individual with some great ideas and excellent work. My source-files might not have totally influenced him or her; however, it is nice to think that I might have possibly served as inspiration.

I know this all must sound little pretentious, but it really isn’t. I am not about to share source-files for everything, but I will share what I think other designers can build upon and learn from.

On a side note: While I do not condone plagiarism to any degree, if you have every intention of ripping off work that is shared (by me or any other designer who has shared work in the past), at least have the courtesy to faithfully reproduce the work so it looks professionally designed. If imitation really is the height of flattery, please do it well.

In any case I started this project off with a few goals in mind: namely to be as standards compliant in my markup as possible; simplify some of the clutter in terms of visual weight; develop greater focus on typographic legibility with consideration for the type of content on my blog; as well, I wanted to ensure that this new theme was a direct evolution of my current WordPress Theme. This last point was most important to me as so many people seem to really enjoy the current theme. Without revealing too much, I’ve kept with much of the same look and feel, design elements and typographic elements. My core fonts have changed for the better. The editorial space is wider with more white-space given to aid legibility.

The new WordPress Theme – “Lemon Twist” – addresses many of the issues that arose with the current theme (legibility being foremost amongst them); I’ll be attempting the upgrade in the next week so you may see a holding screen for a few days until I’ve worked out the bugs. Stay tuned!

The transition from Fuel Industries to McMillan wasn’t without its bumps, and though I won’t get into that I will say that the fringe benefits of working at McMillan are awesome. I’m not talking about the salary (which is hella awsome) or all the other perks, I’m talking about the location. The McMillan building is right at the edge of the Byward Market — for those of you who are familiar with Ottawa, simply “the Market” — and the sheer number of great restaurants to hit up for lunch is something I am looking forward to experiencing. Ottawa in the summer is great, the Market is always buzzing and there’s a ton of things to see and do. Plenty of stuff to occupy my lunch hour. When I get a chance I’ll post up some photos of the office and later this summer, perhaps some pics of the Market.

FYI: this is where I am.

In any case, if I were to re-design I would not want this current theme to go to waste so Jon Snook mentioned that it might be interesting to offer this theme up for the WordPress community. If anyone is interested, let me know and I’ll post up my source files including PSD’s for folks who would like to make the them more generic. I have a couple design guidelines, but nothing earth shattering.