December 5, 2006
While a great concept and one that is lauded by many individuals, including Andy Beal and folks who like Matt Cutts, any blog that is always being tweaked on a regular basis should not be using WP-Cache.
If you know your blog is in perfect shape and never will be modified, then sure, this is a nice tool for you.
But I don’t like it.
I’ve been working on optimizing one of the blogs I maintain. For some reason there was an error on one of the pages and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what was up with it. I removed the entire code snippet and refreshed a bunch of times. I even tried a different browser and then two different computers and four more browsers. And the code snippet was still there.
I realized that the error of my ways was this “faster WordPress plugin.” The files are all stored on the server and not processed locally, and the cache hadn’t expired. Therefore, I wasn’t seeing the newest updates; I was seeing a cached update — and there was nothing that I could do within my browser to change that. Still, the plugin is practical, but it just doesn’t cut it for folks who like to try out other plugins, new CSS styles, or make small edits.
This is a preview of A WordPress Plugin for Developers to Avoid: WP-Cache.
Read the full post (284 words, estimated 1:08 mins reading time)
Read the full article →
November 15, 2006
I find it ironic (and totally unplanned) that the blog topic I wrote on usability on at work today is featured in a similar light from the New York Times in today’s article about web site usability. They must have attended the conferences yesterday for World Usability Day. (For the record, that work blog had been a work in progress since yesterday, before I knew about World Usability Day as well.)
I’ll summarize my blog points on web usability guidelines:
- Make the goal of your website (a product sale, for example) stand out at you on the landing page.
- Understand the emotions of someone interested in your website and know that you are not your audience.
- Include persuasive content. Use power words.
- Design something memorable — in a good and catchy way.
- Don’t add unnecessary bells and whistles that detract from your offerings.
The New York Times article reiterated important guidelines that I also touch upon, such as approachability (contact information being easily found), eliminating unnecessary design elements, and even mentions a bit of SEO basics (using quotes from Matt Cutts) as well.
Read the full article →
Digital Marketing Specialist, Social Media Consultant,
and Tech Geek at Heart