March 22, 2003: Under construction
This weekend Bluejake.com is under construction. I am switching to Moveable Type content management for the weblog, and looking into different content management strategies for the images. This redesign would not be possible without Sam Thompson, who wrote an expert piece of software to import the 750 comments from SnorComments (which I used with Blogger) into Moveable Type. More about that later. Why am I updating my site? Well, over the last few months I've come to believe in the following points, which I am issuing here as a sort of personal site design manifesto:
1. Personal sites must be completely content managed- all words and images in the site must be stored separately from the programming that handles the site's design. Preferably, this content management should be dynamic- but failing that, it can be a static content management like the sort I will be using at Bluejake.
2. Designs for personal sites must be completely XHTML and CSS compliant, and should be able to prove it by validating. I have no position on the use of CSS for layouts- XHTML table designs are less flexible, but give you better control over how the page looks. For a small personal site like Bluejake, CSS layouts do the job adequately and offer much greater flexibility for quickly updating the design of all pages.
3. All pages of the site should be capable of being edited remotely- the days of having to go back to your desktop to change a link on your links page are over and done. Any number of content management systems can do this- but solutions that are only resident on the desktop (like Radio Userland and Macromedia Contribute) do not do the job.
4. Sites should be well organized, accessible, and well designed, according to current web design standards. Design should be balanced against information architecture and user interface concerns, and in a tie, the IA and UI concerns should win out.
5. You should pay for the software that you use to manage your site- when I used Blogger I paid the $35 for BloggerPro, and now that I'm using Moveable Type, I've paid for that as well. The software is well worth the price, and it's our moral obligation to support the programmers who put in so much work on these systems.
I may add to this manifesto as time passes- do any of you have ideas to add?
Comments
As a beneficiary of your manifesto, I think your doctrine rings true. I can't wait until Version 2.1.
I'm in agreement with much of what you say, but I don't understand how personal sites should be any better organized, acessible, and content managed than other, say, informational, sites. Moreover, I'd actually argue that personal sites powered by the likes of Blogger, like my own benefit from the simplicity of implementation and the hard work put into its user-friendliness. MT, while a solid and excellent solution, is still beyond the pale of most personal site designers/developers and most personal sites are kept by *writers*, who care little about the technology they use so long as it works.
It's a bit like arguing that personal diaries should be written on a Palm Pilot rather than with Microsoft Word. Word is easier to use, doesn't make one have to think about the medium, is ubiquitious, and has little installation and upkeep issues. Palm's Graffitti on the other hand, works for power users like yourself.
I disagree- i think it's more like telling people to use microsoft word, which has a number of useful features, rather than notepad, which is a simpler and less useful program. But I agree, notepad (or blogger) still has it's uses. Not every site requires the stuff MT is good at- categories, multiple templates, XML, etc. But going forward, Blogger is either going to have to offer a power version (and I don't mean Blogger Pro, which offers little in the way of new functionality) or risk losing most of the interesting sites in the blogosphere.
What's the difference between personal sites and informational sites? Well, most of the time personal sites are more about the content and less about the design- with brochure sites for businesses, the design tends to be more important than the content. This has certain consequences, such as making it easier to justify a more powerful but less good looking solution like CSS layouts.
Nice page!!!
Yes, it's a good idea
please ?
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