Instead of taking forever to make a point, I’m going to edit my posts and say more with fewer words.
This post had more of a point to make, but it’s been edited out.
A Change of Scenery: getting my music back online
Over the last few years, I’ve probably spent more time reorganising my personal site than actually working on new material to put on the site. I was in a bit of a creative drought, and just wasn’t 100% happy with the various personal sites I’ve tried to put together over the last few years.
I’m hoping today’s efforts will be a foundation to build on, rather than something to tear down and rebuild later in the year. Check it out: Music by Ben Barden
That was the easy part. Here’s the fun part: A Change of Scenery
The music player uses the brilliant jPlayer, which I’ve added to the sidebar and used to make a playlist of all 20 tracks from that album.
An added bonus is that if you click one of the track names in the text on the left of the page, it’ll start playing that track. Also, if you grab the URL, it should have the track number in it – so if you come back to the page later, it’ll autoplay that track. Otherwise, it won’t play anything until you choose a track (or click Play to start track 1).
Hope you enjoy some of the tracks.
Write better posts – let your blogging ideas stew
A couple of years ago, I wrote a post suggesting you should write ideas when you think of them. An idea is just an idea – you should get it into a published post as soon as you can.
However, I’ve recently had a few ideas that I haven’t written up immediately, and the resulting posts have come out really well. Why is this?
Losing interest in ideas: good or bad?
I have several lists of topic ideas for my blog. When I think of an idea, I add it to a list. It can take a while before it becomes a post – if it ever does.
Taking too long to act on a post idea can mean you lose interest in it, and it gets shelved. But if you lose interest, maybe it wasn’t that great to begin with.
Why let an idea stew?
Writing down a post idea and coming back to it later gives a sort of sanity check. It allows you to get over the excitement of the idea and review it with a clear head.
The luxury of time also gives you a chance to form a more complete opinion of a topic. Posting an idea straight away can result in a relatively raw post, which might be what you’re aiming for. If you’re looking for something fully-formed, let the idea stew for a bit longer.
Of course, this logic doesn’t apply if you’re publishing breaking news or other time-sensitive content.
UX 101: put the cursor in the first field
When loading a page where a form is the focal point of the page, always put the cursor in the first field. This allows the user to start typing immediately.
A good example is when you go to create a new blog post at WordPress.com. Have you noticed how it works?
- When the New Post page loads, the cursor goes right into the Title field.
- After typing your title, hit the Tab key. Now you’re right in the Body field.
The little details make all the difference.
There’s an exception though. If there’s a search box on a page where the main function isn’t search, don’t put the cursor in the field. If the user scrolls down when the page is still loading, the cursor can make the page jump back up to the top so the search box is visible.
Putting the cursor into the first field is really useful for speeding things up for the user. You’ll notice it the most if you have a lot of repetitive data entry to do. Anything you can do to reduce a mouse click and get the user started much faster will help to make your screens a joy to use.