When you put images on an official Augsburg College web page or blog post, be careful. It’s not just about the legal ramifications, it’s also about being authentic and on-brand. Continue reading “Using Non-Augsburg Images”
Using Non-Augsburg Images
Category: Tips
Screen Options
See more tutorials on the Documentation and Videos pages.
A-mail: a lesson in headline optimization
Headlines are important. They tell me whether or not a section of a web page might interest me. I’ve been noticing some less-than-grabbing headlines on A-mail lately, so I thought A-mail would make a good case study in good headlines versus bad ones. Continue reading “A-mail: a lesson in headline optimization”
Gmail Pro Tips
I meant to write this a long time ago when Augsburg finished transferring to Google Mail email service. But let’s forget the fact that I’m coming a little late to the party and embrace the fact that I showed up at all.
Here are a few tips that will make your Gmail experience all it can be. Continue reading “Gmail Pro Tips”
How to make a good web page
“How to Make a Good Web Page” (Slideshow)
Here is the PowerPoint presentation from my web training today on how to make a good web page.
What watches can teach us about usability
Until a few years ago, I wore a wristwatch. Usually, a cheap Timex that was waterproof, with a back-lit digital display so I could see it at night. But after I got my first cell phone, the watch seemed unnecessary because the phone had a clock. Why carry two clocks around? I do have one nice wristwatch that I wear when I am dressed up for a special occasion. One such occasion happened a couple of weeks ago and it made me realize how much I love wearing a watch. I could check the time without having to get out my phone; consequently, I detached from my phone, because usually a check on the time leads to checking email and Twitter and Facebook. So now I want to get a watch for daily use, and in my search for a watch, I noticed that, much like with a website, I am trying to find the right balance of two things: Continue reading “What watches can teach us about usability”
The Problem with Google Analytics
Augsburg College uses Google Analytics to track our website traffic. It is a useful tool that does many great things. If you want to use Google Analytics to see information about your website’s traffic, it’s important that you know this one thing:
Google Analytics will give you numbers, but not actionable data. Continue reading “The Problem with Google Analytics”
Accordions are bad. Scrolling is ok.
“Users don’t scroll long pages.”
“People avoid pages with a lot of content.”
These are two common misconceptions about website content debunked in a recent article by the Nielsen Norman Group. The article focuses on accordion menus, and how studies have shown that the use of accordion menus to show and hide blocks of content, in order to keep the page length short, are often less helpful than simply displaying all of the content, even if it creates a long page. Continue reading “Accordions are bad. Scrolling is ok.”
How to Copy and Paste properly
Whenever you copy and paste content from a website or a document (Word doc, Google Doc, etc,) into a web page in WordPress, you’re also inadvertently copying code that you do not see. WordPress has gotten better over time at filtering out this code, but it doesn’t catch everything. While the page may look fine to you, there could be all sorts of problematic things happening in the code. Here’s an example of what it can look like:
This can have terrible implications for your page. It may cause unwanted yet minor issues, such as changing some colors and fonts on your page, but it can also cause more major damage, such as putting <div> tags on the page that can ultimately wreak havoc with the page layout.
The solution: paste your text in the Text tab (see above) and then format the text as needed in the Visual tab. You can use the Visual tab, but be aware that you may have to go back later and fix problem spots.
Linking to an email address
Linking to an email address is done almost the same way as creating any other text link. So if you don’t know how to create a text link, read my post about how to create a text link.
The Easy Way: Shortcode
If you are editing a page on www.augsburg.ac, you can use this handy shortcode. Just replace the email address with the one you want to use. It will display your email address and properly hyperlink it. Continue reading “Linking to an email address”