farfromfearless

Enhancing The Previous & Next Links in WordPress 3.0

The “previous post” and “next post” links that appear in your WordPress templates can be quite handy when navigating between posts, but for the most part the output of get_next_post_link() and get_previous_post_link() are quite limited.

URL Token Replacement Techniques for WordPress 3.0

Automating the content migration process with WordPress as a CMS can often be a painful process, but with some simple techniques using WordPress' content filters and plug-in hooks, the process can be less cumbersome.

Visio Productivity Tips

The majority of my work as of late has been on the planning side of my service offering, e.g. Interaction Design and User Interface Design, and most of the artefacts of my work are typically generated with Visio. This past year has provided me with many opportunities and challenges in working with Visio and improving my efficiency with the tool.

How to Fix Your Broken CMS: Part 2

Sometimes the "quick wins" on a project can turn out to be long-term losses. Has your CMS project turned into a win or loss for your organization? Perhaps it's time to take a step back and re-evaluate your CMS strategy or development roadmap.

How to Fix Your Broken CMS: Part 1

Are you or your organization considering implementing a CMS? Do you have one in place already? Before you move ahead with your CMS project, you may want to take a few minutes to consider your expectations of a CMS before you commit your resources to the project.

Creating a Reusable Shape with Visio Shape Data Support

An in-depth tutorial on how to leverage Visio's datagraphics features for building efficient, multipurpose shapes for use in your diagrams and documents.

Out with the Old and in with Something Dramatically Different.

As some of you may have noticed by now, I’ve updated farfromfearless. I suppose “update” is a bit of an understatement. If you’re reading this post, it’ll be in the context of a dramatically new theme and structure. Change is good. What’s New? A number of things have changed over the past few months — [...]

D&B Pay It Forward

"D&B Pay It Forward" was an internal HR campaign designed to illustrate how team members within regional divisions (and inter-departmental) were related through simple acts of kindness. The campaign highlighted not only the relationships internally but provided global inside to how D&B team members connected with their external customers, and in many cases across regions. The campaign allowed employees the opportunity to recognize each other's contributions both large and small, and was ultimately tied to a charitable fundraising initiative. This project offered several interesting challenges on the IT and implementation level that were successfully overcome.

Metropolitain Brasserie Restaurant

The Metropolitain Brasserie Restaurant needed a website when they opened their doors, wanting to communicate the Parisian-style menu and the atmosphere that complimented it. The website showcased aspects of their interior decoration through carefully selected photography, panoramas, and a touch of old world charm. Despite the heavy use of photographic assets, it was important that the site load quickly and perform well without losing its charm.

Sophos

One of the primary entry points into the Shopos.com website is through their homepage, which funnels traffic to specific products and information. User interaction with the original homepage was scattered and needed to be focused to specific areas of interest. The interaction design of the new homepage discarded over 80% of information clutter the original, and focused on drawing prospects' and customer's attention the information relevant to them.

Wild About Gardening

"Wild About Gardening" is one the Canadian Wildlife Federations' most highly trafficked sites, having build up a niche audience over the past ten years. The original website had accumulated a volume of information making it near unmanageable. The refreshed website required a reorganization of its information architecture to improve scalability, and a new, contemporary look and feel.

HomeDVD

HomeDVD is an Ottawa-based small business specializing in converting analog media to digital (archival) media. This project involved a rebranding exercise limited to their logo and website. The original website was already well positioned for organic search; however, it was not particularly friendly towards its demographic (45+), and so presented some interesting challenges.

The Far Grove

The Far Grove is the blog of Ottawa-based artisan, Krista Hubert who develops and number of hand-made products for resale on her Etsy.com storefront. The blog was developed as a means for The Far Grove to provide customers with a personal insight into the design and creation of the artist's merchandise. A unique, premium WordPress theme was created and hosted on private installation of WordPress.

Fuel Industries

Fuel Industries re-launched their company website with an interest towards integrating social media, while taking advantage of web standards for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes. The new website placed a stronger focus on balancing compelling visuals and case-study based content. The resulting site design accounted for a scalable information architecture, and the integration of a WordPress blog.

Canada Post – Admail Advisor

The Canada Post "Admail Advisor" is a web-based training tool designed to inform and educate customers on the benefits of "addressed admail" and "unaddressed admail" -- considered two of the company's core services. The training tool stepped users through several quick exercises that focused on different aspects of creating an admail campaign.