Tag Archives: webdesign

Edit Flow – newsroom workflow plugin for WordPress

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I have just come across the Edit Flow plugin. Currently at version 0.5.3 it promises to deliver a unified plugin for implementing a newsroom workflow within WordPress. In other words:

  • Custom post statuses (e.g. assigned, draft, pending review, pitch, waiting for feedback).
  • Editorial comments to provide feedback on posts.
  • Email notification of changes to posts.
  • Custom user groups.
  • New post meta-data (e.g. description, due date, location etc).

The authors promises to bring additional features in the future and are currently conducting a survey to gauge priorities from their user base.

Currently the plugin offers similar features to what can be achieved from Peter’s Collaboration and Post Notes plugins, which I have used on other news websites. The idea of unifying these features in a single plugin specifically targeted at newsroom workflows is interesting though… and it will be interesting to see if this effort can provide an even better solution to this challenge. I’ve installed it and testing now.

Update: slides from Andrew Spittle describing the philosophy behind the plugin and functionality future releases.

Can a Platform Succeed Without a Popular Service?

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Adam DuVander:

Twitter and Facebook are often lauded as shining examples of what a platform does for your business. And for good reason. They have very successful developer programs. But they are also extremely popular services on their own. A developer may not build where there is not the foundation of a loyal user base. But even that has exceptions.

Source

BBC News website redesign

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Steve Herrmann:

And we've done something which will be less obvious to you, but hugely important to the journalists working on the site. We've completely rebuilt the content production system (CPS) which we use to create content and run the site. The new version of the CPS is designed to be easier to use and – crucially when we want to get stories out to you fast – quicker too. It's also built to be more flexible, so it should be easier to keep the site evolving, and to produce the content in ways that work well on other platforms, such as mobile.

External link

Design is key to good online journalism, not just coding and data

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John Hillman:

Yet in many ways a digital journalist is more likely to struggle with design than coding. Before you can begin coding you have to have this side of things clear, whether you are working on your own independent blog or developing a complex data rich piece for a much larger news website.

[...]

My opinion is that, like coding, you’ll get the best results when you’re working in a team of professionals; that digital trinity of a journalist, a coder and a designer.

As an online editor for a digital media company, I am aware of just how important coding is, although I don’t believe that journalists and coders will ever meld into the same role. I just think that a modern journalist should be able to understand and talk about web architecture fluently. The same applies to basic design principles.

Make that information architecture and I'll agree – should be understood by all modern journalists.

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"Websites that surprise and delight us": The future of web design

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Martin Belam:

There is a lot of excitement around HTML5's ability to embed video directly in the page without having to use Flash or Silverlight as a wrapper, but personally, as an information architect on a news site, it is new tags like <header>, <nav>,

and <time> which look immediately useful to me.

This is absolutely the case and the significance of improvements like these are being completely ignored. Prospective online and multimedia journalists should take note!

External link

Del.ici.us tags: html5 webdesign martinbelam

How to show ads to only search engine visitors using Who Sees Ads – Weblog Tools Collection

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    Klint Finley:

    "Perennial Weblog Tools Collection community favorite Who Sees Ads can be used to show ads only to certain visitors – such as people who have arrived on your site from a search engine. It’s a useful way to improve your click-through-ratio, and please your regular readers by hiding ads from them.

    This is a quick introduction to using the plugin. Showing ads only to search engine visitors is extremely simple – Who Sees Ads can do much, much more. Check out the links at the end of this article for more information."

    External link

    Del.ici.us tags: wordpress wordpress-plugin advertising webdesign

Google Font Directory

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    Can't wait for widespread use of new HTML5 font feature, and now Google is doing its bit to simplify embedding of fonts:

    "The Google Font Directory lets you browse all the fonts available via the Google Font API. All fonts in the directory are available for use on your website under an open source license and served by Google servers.

    View font details to get the code needed to embed the font on your web site."

    External link

    Del.ici.us tags: html5 font embed webdesign google

Do journalists need to learn to be programmers? Yes. And no. – Martin Belam

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    Martin Belam hits the nail on the head:

    "I've yet to see a software developer stand up and say that "citizen coders" will inevitably devalue the work that they do, and lead to job losses and a lack of quality in the sector.

    [...]

    The second thing is the whole premise itself – do journalists need to be able to program?

    I think the ability to mark-up some HTML and understand why <span>, <div>, classes and IDs are important for CSS and Javascript is essential for anyone publishing in the web.

    But my answer is that no, journalists don't all need to be able to write program, but the ability to think like a programmer is an invaluable skill."

    Question remains, which is the best way to teach someone to think like a programmer?

    Whilst I was at Teesside University we ditched Dreamweaver for CMS/template based design, and we're about to enter the same discussions at Bournemouth University over the summer. Looking forward to it ;)

    External link

    Del.ici.us tags: journalists practice webdesign programming future martinbelam

New site comment system hoping to diversify the views around news – journalism.co.uk

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    Judith Townend on the Insight App from Ameritocracy:

    "It's a user-contributed social media platform that allows users to rate or annotate phrases with questions or an 'Insight' comment. It also draws in conversation from around the web; so comment on the same phrase elsewhere will be brought into the discussion as well."

    Great idea, but probably overkill. Clunky user experience.

    External link

    Del.ici.us tags: insightapp comment webdesign socialmedia