ESPN.com Redesigns

ESPN.com, one of my favorite sports sites, recently launched a new design:

ESPN Screenshot

The new design takes on a simplified approach to layout, with three equal-width columns and a bigger showcase section above the fold. The past design used different column widths to underscore information heirarchy and crammed a lot above the fold. The new design tries to be more usable by including the staple breadcrumbs link, as well as reducing the number of javascript pull-down menus.

From an information architecture point of view, the site makes it more obvious that spcific sports sites (like NBA, NFL, etc.) are part of the ESPN umbrella site, and it shows more how the other content of the main ESPN site ties to the other subsites.

Obviously, ESPN wanted to highlight its video content and the designers may have been put in a situation to give it bigger screen real estate. What the new design does is that it put the video content on the main showcase area above the fold and places it on a tab. The design philosophy was it was better to put the video a bigger area, at the expense of a an additional step to get there. (In the old design, the video is placed above the fold, although with a smaller area)

Another observation, the new design also doesn’t stretch to the edges of the viewport with a healthy amount of margins. Is this a new design trend?

Over-all the design is simple (although not Zen-like) and focuses on the first screenful.

How Do You Weather a Blogging Storm?

I write this post with reference to the case of a politician in the Philippines mauling a man and his son over a game of golf. To get an idea of what I’m talking about, try going to Google’s Blog Search or Technorati and look for “pangandaman golf” or something similar. What you will find is thousands of blog posts on this matter, and a majority of them are very critical of Nasser Pangandaman, the politician at the center of the storm.

With the big blogosphere tempest the incident has stirred up, how do you handle it if you were Mr. Pangandaman?

Let’s look what Mr. Pangandaman has done so far: first, he worked the press by stating in interviews that they did not start the fight (denial), then he issued an apology over a radio interview to the aggrieved party, but maintained innocence (still denial), launched a charm offensive by stating that prior to the incident, he had maintained a “sober image” (put himself ins a good light), and recently he made an appeal to the blogging community for “fairness” (go for bloggers’ higher sense of purpose). His appeal goes: 

I appeal to the bloggers to stop this. They also have their families, they have parents and siblings. Our family is already hurting. I hope this doesn’t happen to you (bloggers).

Mr. Pangandaman has spent the last week diffusing this issue and there are little indications that he is making progress. So how does he contain it?

The short answer: he can’t.

I read somewhere before that trying to get back something put online is like trying to get the pee out of a swimming pool– it’s practically impossible with the means readily available. In the case of Mr. Pangandaman, he’s practically in a pool full of piss (pardon the analogy).

Let’s look at what he’s dealing with: The blogging community (at least the people I’ve interacted with) is really just normal people who rarely have an agenda. But the incident struck a chord that most people, not just bloggers, are against and that idea of people who are supposed to help us being the tormentors.

If you think about it, a golfing incident is really something most people don’t care about much, but once you put a 56-year old man and his 14-year old son being brutally clubbed by a notable politician and his henchmen, it puts things on a different light. In my opinion, when the daughter of the victim blogged about it in a very honest and earnest way, bloggers were able to empathize with her because that victim could be them– people who don’t stan a chance against a wealthy and influential person. I think that’s when the storm started, and perhaps Mr. Pangandaman’s political career may have ended.

So how does one deal with this? What Mr. Pangandaman has done so far is pretty much useless (denial, charm offensive, etc.) to reverse the tide in his favor. What he could pray for is a group of bloggers share his side and get critical mass to whip up his own blog storm. With this approach, he can dillute the blogosphere with posts in his favor and put bloggers at odds with one another. 

Antother thing he can do is get a notable blogger or blogging personality to openly vouch for him. This will put the heat on the blogger and not on him and practically discredit the whole blogging community. This is more of a “sheild strategy” than to stop the whole issue.

Finally, he can cut his losses and admit his wrongdoing. Most of the bloggers will be off his back, and try to rebuild his image from the rubble.

Mr. Pangandaman is working inneffectively on different fronts to maintain his reputation and has relied on traditional media to fight this battle, which is being fought on the blogging battlefield. No wonder he is losing.

Carpe diem! Memento mori!

The title is a reference to two notable Latin phrases– Carpe diem (”Sieze the day”) and Memento mori (”Remember that you are mortal”) because I think they are the two sides of the same coin.

The first phrase refers to the opportunity side of things where you just grab what you can and try be successful as often as possible because the good things may not be there tomorrow while the second refers to the reminder to for moderation and humility, a reminder that not all success is permanent so there is no point in being too proud. To illustrate that point:  in ancient Rome, slaves were given the responsibility to utter the phrase “memento mori” to a triumphant general in a victory parade to ground his ego and put things in proper perspective.

So what’s the point of all this Latin phrases? I was inspired by one comment made by Juned Sonido in Coy Caballes’ blog post on the December 2008-January 2009 issue of Manual Magazine. Juned commented “memento mori” and I didn’t know that phrase until I did my research (in Wikipedia, of course :P). My point: While every everyone wants to “seize the day” and be proud when the prize has been grabbed, there has to be a little reminder to us not to let success, big or small, get in to our heads. In other words, we need our dose of “memento mori.”

I’m using the two phrases as points of my reflection in my inclusion on a feature in the December 2008-January 2009 issue of Manual Magazine.

The issue is being dubbed as their “Blog Issue” as a majority of the issue’s articles and features focus on blogs, social media and bloggers. Bloggers  Coy CaballesMarkku SeguerraMike Abundo and I were featured, plus Jayvee Fernandez and Rico Mossesgeld contributed articles. (Of course, there’s a little back story there.) 

As I reflected on the events, I feel happy and fortunate to be included in the blogger feature of the magazine. But at the same time, I’m trying not to get too caught up in it and let it inflate my ego to the size of a blimp. I’m now seeing the intricate balance of pride and humility– Carpe diem and Memento mori.

Standard Web Standards Reader Survey

Take the Standard Web Standards Reader Survey!

I just realized that I’ve been blogging at Standard Web Standards for more than three years now and I’ve never asked for feedback from the readers of this blog directly. 

I had a thought a few days ago that blogging is still a communications vehicle (albeit a very personal one), and I realized that I could still a do a better job of “completing the communication loop,”  so to speak. So, I thought a nice, short survey was in order.  I also have been looking at my blog portfolio and I thought some realignment could be done.

I do hope you can help me come up with a more enjoyable and informative blog. :)

Book Review: Making Meaning: How Successful Businesses Deliver Meaningful Customer Experiences

Making Meaning: How Successful Businesses Deliver Meaningful Customer Experiences is a book about understanding and crafting meaning customer experiences for businesses. So what am I doing reading this book?

Well, for starters, I’ve been taking an interest in web user experience lately in what I’ve been doing, but my research and exposure had been primarily on the usability aspects. The book puts things in a broader perspective because the experience it is talking comes from a broad gamut of products and services. That approach put brought things “back to basics” because I felt I skipped the part about user & customer experience that on those levels.

Case in point: I’ve been quite a stickler for the functional and satisfying dimensions of user experiences. I’ve learned from the book that there are more granular components to the term “user satisfaction.” When you think about it, what does it mean when our users are “satisfied” with the website you developed? Are they more happy? Do they have a sense of accomplishment? The book tries teach the reader to make those connections.

Since the book is grounded on the corporate setting, it also talks about how experience design fits in a business enterprise. For the authors, customer experience is designed deliberately and is a part of the innovation processes of a company. The authors also present easy to understand frameworks and case studies to help people implement their own experience design activity. However, this is the point in the book that I found the least interesting, perhaps I have more or less been doing web projects with smaller teams (and little resistance :P)

Making Meaning: How Successful Businesses Deliver Meaningful Customer Experiences by Steve Diller, Nathan Shedroff and Darrel Rhea is a good read for usability folks and web product managers who want to broaden their appreciation of user experience design.

Should there be a “Blogging Tax”?

I recently read an article form Slashdot about Canada’s move to tighten their internet regulations and implement additional rules on taxation, and even user-generated content.

I then thought what if something similar happened to the Philippines. A valid question that comes to my mind is: Should there be a “Blogging Tax” levied on Bloggers?

My short answer to that is “No, not now”

The way I see it, Blogging, at least in the Philippines, is considered an “informal economy.” What that means is that Bloggers’ earnings are not currently regulated and monitored by social and legal institutions. That means institutions like the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) opt not to touch your Adsense payments because it’s a wide open field and it’s a fied that the government doesn’t fully understand. (Why am I not surprised?)

To better illustrate the informal economy, Imagine you asked your neighbor to water your plants or sort your collection of DVD’s with the agreement that you will pay him/her later. After he/she finishes the task, you pay him/her with the agreed amount. Technically, your neighbor earned some income, thus may be subject to tax. However, since there’s really now strict regulations on “plant watering” or “DVD sorting,” your neighbor can avoid declaring his/her revenues and go home scott-free. You could say the same about the bribes and grease money.

Another thing is the transaction cost of implementing the sanctions on “tax avoidance” bloggers. There are thousands (and that number is growing) of bloggers in the Philippines and I’m assuming a good portion puts advertising in the blogs and a few have paid reviews or posts. If the BIR wants to monitor everyone’s actions and avoidance of the taxes from blogging revenue, it has to invest a lot in infrastructure and labor.

So if not now, when should the Blogging Tax be implemented? I say, once the blogging industry has matured and become institutionalized. (Like issuances of “Blogging Licenses” or requirement to register blogs and blog earnings by law).

Will those things happen? Not anytime soon.

The One Thing about Google Chrome I’m Annoyed With…

…Is the way it keeps on insisting on the Google search engine that’s associated with my geographic location.

I’ve been using Google Chrome as my default browser and I’ve been observing that whenever I search for something via the address bar, it will go to Google.com.ph, the Google search engine that’s geared for the Philippines.

The thing is, I’ve set my preferences time and time again to switch to the default Google.com page with my preferred number of returned search results.

Is this a bug or Google’s way of “doing what’s best” for my search. :x

The Author

Regnard Raquedan

Regnard Kreisler C. Raquedan is an advocate of web standards and usability. He is the User Group Manager of the Adobe User Group - Philippines and Local Ambassador for the UXNet in Manila.