This is a great book w/ lots of useful info. Things he pointed out were common sense stuff, but of course, this common sense stuff is sometimes the hardest thing to design, like using "jobs" instead of "employment opportunities." The examples of actual websites were useful. I wonder how many of those sites underwent redesign after his criticisms.
One great point he makes is not ot overload pages with text. As historians, who are wedded to text, I think this would be the hardest part of his suggestions to implement. We are naturally verbose creatures. I myself tend to be a very succinct writer, so I hopefully will not break this rule too badly. Which leads me to my next topic...
Since we are historians and are so into the written word, if we do feel the need to create something very wordy for our sites, what is the best way to do it? Some of the projects in class, such as an online archive, could probably get away with not being too verbal, but what about those of us who are have to create some kind of argument? If my website on preservation in Richmond is going to be more than an online exhibition, and I am creating an argument (although what I am arguing other than preservation is a great tool for grassroots-oriented community revitalization that preserves history, I don't know at this point), how do I argue something without being verbal? If I feel the need to be verbal, would it be better to creat a pdf document that could be printed rather than a webpage?
