www.pedromendes.com » Site Stuff

C#? .Net?

Pedro — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:10:52 +0000

Hey there,

This and next week I will be in training on these two exciting topics. It is needed for my day job. Now that I’m turning to opensource, nothing like a good old Microsoft shower. I will survive

So, I may be posting less in the comming days. But I’ll be around. Lots of exciting projects happening, feel free to ask. More news soon.

Have loads of fun on the Hollidays, but be safe, drive safe, and always wear a condom

Wordpress Update

Pedro — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 10:00:15 +0000

It’s incredible the time you can spend using a tool such as WordPress, and not value it. Since I’ve been learning it a bit deeper, I’ve found new and exciting projects. Well, my iniciative may have also something to do with it. The thing is, WordPress is a blessing for many many sites. I’m making full use of it, and learning php on the way. I won’t event tell you the WP version I had on my site, but all is ok now (of course, after some uploading and upgrading stresses).

Giving Technorari a try

Pedro — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 16:40:04 +0000

Here’s my brand new Technorati Profile. Not much there yet, but I figured it was about time. More on this and other experiences soon.

On another note… SHIFT IS TWO DAYS AWAY. I CAN’T WAIT!

Ticketline, ou o potencial desperdiçado

Pedro — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 10:33:52 +0000

Já repararam como a Ticketline, com o redesign, conseguiu ficar com um site pior do que tinha? E, sinceramente, não penso que o original fosse particularmente bom. Algumas notas:

Banners: 6 (seis!) banners ou gifs animados na homepage. Resultado? A atenção (e a irritação) é completamente dispersa por estas distracções, em vez de ser dirigida para o conteúdo principal da página.
Sugestão: Eliminar todas as animações, deixar apenas dois (máximo) banners.
Destaques: Centro da página principal: ~~40 (quarenta!)~~ 55 (cinquenta e cinco) destaques de espectáculos, que parecem colocados ao acaso. O critério de escolha destes é aparentemente inexistente. Para terem efeito, os destaques têm de ser poucos. A vontade de encaixar tudo na homepage é comum, mas nada eficaz.
Sugestão: Reduzir os destaques a 5 no máximo, e apostar na organização (arquitectura) da informação.
Frames: Está mais do que provado que o uso de frames prejudica gravemente a usabilidade de um site. Relançar um site “a sério” em 2006 com frames já não devia acontecer.
Sugestão: Não usar frames.
Sapo: O Banner sapo acrescenta ZERO à navegação e usabilidade do site. Aqui a estratégia é outra (comercial e de branding). Percebo-a, mas julgo-a completamente ineficaz e até contraproducente para ambas as partes
Modo de Compra: Um site cuja explicação de como comprar se estende por 6 (seis) páginas impressas (desformatadas) é um convite à desistência. Já vi manuais de produtos electrónicos mais pequenos.
Sugestões: Versão no máximo de 2 páginas em pdf; versão (realmente) animada, noutra janela; Ajuda telefónica eficaz; Ajuda online.
Links para profissionais: Os links para Promotores e Parceiros são completamente irrelevantes para os clientes da ticketline. Não devem estar ao mesmo nível do menu principal.
Sugestão: uma página de entrada específica para estes agentes.
Logotipo: O link do logotipo no canto superior esquerdo do site, faz o refresh da frame de topo (menu principal) que já estava presente ou seja, não tem utilidade. A convenção é que o link remeta para a página principal do site.

Devo dizer que penso que um mau site muitas vezes é melhor que nenhum site. Estou certo de que as as pessoas que trabalham no site da Ticketline fazem o seu melhor. A boa notícia é que, tendo um mau site, há imenso potencial para o melhorar E, com um site mais usável e mais navegável, não tenho qualquer dúvida que os lucros de ticketline crescerão a olhos vistos. Não é assim tão difícil, mas é preciso saber o que fazer.

Deixo-vos com uma citação de Benjamin Disraeli: “The fool wonders, the wise man asks“.

Moooooo

Pedro — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 14:16:07 +0000

“The Big Moo” is the latest Seth Godin adventure. After the success of “The purple cow”, he dedided to challenge 33 business gurus and thinkers to share their views on business and the world! This, I’m sure is a great learning opportunity. Michael Arrington, of Techcrunch is giving away a few copies. Go take your chance. I am

Fed Up

Pedro — Sun, 24 Jul 2005 21:34:33 +0000

As I was sitting here, getting ready for a date with a nice book, I was thinking how fed up I get sometimes. I started wondering whether I should keep a blog at all, seeming that sometimes I have nothing to say worth listening to. I decided to check Molly’s blog and there it was… this isn’t the first time this has happened. Having a thought and finding out someone else (in this case a friend) is thinking on similar lines. A good friend has decided some time ago to close his blog, being so tired with some people. I really miss his online presence. If I decide to shut up for a while, will anyone miss mine?

99,5% of Portuguese companies don’t take the Web seriously

Pedro — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 21:16:17 +0000

99,5% of Portuguese companies don’t take the Web seriously. And what’s worse for them, they don’t take their custumers seriously. What happens? They WILL lose costumers. Many a company has lost me as a client, and I don’t think I am the only one, although I think many of my country mates complain but seldom do anything about it.
Please don’t see a website as a huge online brochure. If it’s online, people will see it, and try to interact with it. But you see, interaction is a two way street. If you frustrate my expectations, you will have a dissatisfied customer… uh and I can tell you, he will have more impact than 10 happy ones. They will learn, it will take some years. And I will be watching, most certainly from abroad.

Can anyone help? bilingual site

Pedro — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 10:09:00 +0000

Some time ago I wrote a post called “I am bi…lingual. Am I?“.
It is about my need to post both in English and Portuguese. I really don’t want to have to decide on only one language. So I have to find a good solution. Most of my colleagues’ sites opt for English only, for obvious reasons. Are there any examples of bilingual sites?

[PT] Há algum tempo, escrevi um post chamado “I am bi…lingual. Am I?“. Falava sobre a minha necessidade de escrever aqui no site em Inglês, mas também em Português. Não quero ter de decidir apenas por uma lingua. Por isso, quero encontrar uma boa solução. A maior parte dos meus colegas optam pela lingua inglesa nos seus sites, por razões óbvias. Conhecem alguns exemplos de sites bilingues?

Site slowly changing

Pedro — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 09:53:16 +0000

After moving to WordPress some time ago, there is a lot done, and still a lot to be done.

My site was static, almost hand-coded (geek!!). Actually, it was a great way to learn some XHTML and CSS, while I built it. I started moving the content to WP, but there is a huge amount of posts, some over 3 years old. I will eventually have it all in one place.
The picture galleries have moved to flickr. I upgraded to the pro version, and have now sets for some of my trips. Here are a few: Moura, Azenhas do Mar, Barcelona, London, Berlin
After completing this phase, some housecleaning will have to be done. Many of the old pages are still returned by the search engines, and that doesn’t look good

The site design will have to change. This default look is too… well, default.
Being my personal site, sometimes I don’t take care of it as much as I do to other projects. I do my best, as always.

I am bi…lingual. Am I?

Pedro — Tue, 29 Mar 2005 09:21:48 +0000

Yes I know, It’s a poor joke But maybe I got your attention for the problem I want your opinion on.
My site has always been bilingual. I like this because it keeps a foot in Portugal and stays close to Portuguese readers, while with English I reach the Whole Wide Web (oh no, another joke). I want to maintain content in both languages, but it looks a little awkward having two different posts. I created two categories, ‘Português’ and ‘English’, but It doesn’t quite do the trick. Or maybe it does. If you click on the language, you’ll see only the respective posts. Maybe if I include a disclaimer on the navigation bar… I’ll give this some thought.
With a single post in two languages, I can’t figure out how to make both languages stand out, and it seems even more messy. I realize I’m just starting with WordPress, and maybe there is a simple solution for this.
Well, this is me thinking out loud. So, if you usability experts and colleages have a hit for me, feel free to share.