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May 16th, 2011

Reference Materials for Making a Website

Dana Vachon


Since taking on the role of project manager here at P'unk Ave, I've learned it is very important to educate our clients on the best web practices. Why we do what we do, what the current technology and theories are, and how it helps their business. I have been putting together a collection of references to send over to clients to help explain some of these concepts. I thought I would also share my findings here in the Window. For those of you who like book reports, stay tuned for this series.

The first article I'd like to share is an excerpt from Erin Kissane's book, The Elements of Content Strategy, "A Checklist for Content Work." This short article published on A List Apart, is a short break- down of the best practices in Content Strategy. She describes in perfectly plain terms, just exactly what good content is. These concepts apply to every website we build.

My favorite part of the article, may be the toughest for companies to understand, "Good content is concise." I find this is a common problem, people are uncomfortable with the simple, to the point content. They get nervous and start making pages everywhere! Especially in Apostrophe, making pages is almost too easy with the click of one button right in the tool bar. I think Erin puts this phenomenon elegantly, " the web offers the space to publish everything, and it's much easier to treat it like a hall closet with infinite stuffing space than to impose constraints." If anything, I hope this article helps teach people how to curate the information they choose to put on their websites.

So, check it out, A Checklist for Content Work by Erin Kissane.

More reference materials to come!