Eight different developers and JavaScript experts from across the world (yes, the world) will be presenting during the virtual conference. They include:

• John Resig from the Mozilla Corporation and the creator of jQuery
• Paul Irish whose clients include Reebok, Adidas, Boost Mobile, Finish Line, and Monster.com.
• Many others, including the authors of many CSS and JavaScript books

You will not want to miss learning from all of these smart people. Attendees will chat with each other and will have the opportunity to ask the presenters questions.

Come join the UF web community for the webinar on Thursday, November 19 from 10 a.m - 7 p.m. at the CITT Classroom in 2215 Turlington Hall. For more detailed information about the event, visit the jQuery Summit event page.

You must RSVP to attend. If you RSVP and can no longer attend please E-mail us and let us know so we can free up a spot for someone else.

To RSVP for the event: http://oak.circa.ufl.edu/~cittreg/describe.html?sectid=1698

We hope to see you there.

I am so excited to be a part of Web Administration. I look forward to sharing information and my experiences through this blog. Feel free to give feedback by commenting on any of our posts.

• Brian Fling — Design and Development for the iPhone
• Kelly Goto — Workflow and Process
• Matt Harris — Using WordPress for Content Management
• Ryan Irelan — Incorporating Subversion into Your Workflow
• Dan Rubin — Great CSS Design
• Kevin Lawver — Introduction to Ruby on Rails
• Christopher Schmitt — Moving to HTML5
• Mark Trammell and Juliette Melton — Conducting Effective User Research

Christopher Schmitt and the team from Environments for Humans have offered us this webinar at a special discount. The best way I can think of to show our gratitude is to pack the room on September 17th from 10am to 7pm at the CITT and learn from these brilliant speakers. You must be present to view the content as we are not provided any additional streams.

To RSVP, visit our registration page and sign up as seats are limited. Also, this event is prioritized for UF faculty/staff, but if a student wants to attend, we’ll try to squeeze you in.

This webinar will be held on June 3rd, from 1 to 3pm at the CITT classroom and requires an RSVP, as we have limited seating.

This webinar features Dana Chisnell, a respected expert in the field of usability testing and research, as she informs and instructs on how to create your own “quick, easy and insightful” tests. Given that site usability testing has been approved by the Institutional Review Board, this webinar comes at just the right time!

If you cannot attend the CITT in person, the webinar is still available to you at a very reasonable price - only $75 dollars. Visit the usability webinar website for more information.

Since then, she has received a lot of follow-up questions, so I posted them here.

From Barbara Lindsey, Department of Neurosurgery

BL: First question is about the use of header tags in the menu section of the page. Is it OK or does it mess with the hierarchy of the content?

For example, I was given a template which uses <h4> for the quick menu, but there is no other <h4> in my content, therefore everything below that level, is potentially irrelevant content to the <h4> level… Do you agree? Or is it OK if the content is relevant to another higher level header ?

PL: Using the <h4> tag in your menu could potentially create problems with your site later on as you add more content and find a need to use the <h4> tag. A better practice for menu items is to use an unordered item list to create an SEO friendly menu. You can use your CSS to create a style specific to the menu so that it still “looks” like the inherent <h4> style.

BL: Second question, what is your opinion about <dl>, definition list? I have read mixed reviews about whether search engines index these constructs and whether or not they are a useful construct from SEO point of view.

PL: I do know that Google will give you a nice trust rank boost for using definition lists, but as to how it plays in with the overall ranking, I’m not entirely sure. It is certainly an under-used tag and as far as I’m concerned, if used properly, could give you an extra boost that other sites most likely will not have. You can use the <dl> tag not only to list terms and definitions, but can also use it with images and captions. Using it with images and captions will require working with the CSS to get the image and caption to display properly, but is a really cool way to use this tag.

From Micah Bolen, IFAS

MB: Does it really matter whether hyphens are used instead of underscores as dividers when naming web pages with respect to SOE? Furthermore, do you agree with the answer here: http://www.prweaver.com/blog/2004/08/26/2-hyphen-and-underscore?

PL: The article you included below agrees with most of what I have seen and read as well. Like I said in the SEO presentation, underscores are considered ‘old skool’ . In the programming word, underscores are seen as joining words, while hyphens as word separators. Google specifically treats hyphens as word separators.

Vanessa Fox, SEO guru and Webmaster Central creator for Google, recently addressed this in a podcast in March. One thing she says is that having hyphens is important for the user experience because they do a good job of visually separating words, which underscores are not often seen. It leaves user to wonder if there’s a space or an underscore because links get underscored. She talks about this in a podcast on March 6, 2009 which you can find on itunes – her channel is Office Hours and the session is called Cannonical Tag Adoption. Her talk (and unofficial transcript) was referenced here as well: http://pixelposition.com/hyphens-underscores/.

Dave Stanton, a professor from the College of Journalism, was the first to present and he focused on how his 3-year-old daughter interacts with different interfaces and how it helps him understand how to design usable and intuitive interfaces.

Prentiss Ladkani from the College of Education followed with a presentation on search engine optimization at UF, cleverly disguised by her title “Why doesn’t my site show up on UF Google Search?” Prentiss did a fantastic job of teaching the group how search engines work and how building better web pages using appropriate HTML coding produces better search results.

Web Admin’s Joe Spooner taught us about site analytics and how to interpret (or how not to misinterpret) the information from server logs and tools such as Google Analytics.

Finally, Carl Smith from nGen Works dazzled us with his top 10 list of usability mistakes that web managers can’t afford to make. Carl did the heavy lifting of going through the exhaustive Usability.gov “Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines” and focused on the most strongly supported ones.

Throughout the presentations, we had great questions from attendees in person and on the web, thanks in part to our Twitter backchannel conversation.

Overall, attendees seemed to agree the event was a success. Not only did we get high marks for overall satisfaction, but everyone felt the conference helped make you better at your job.

The entire conference is available on the Spring of Web site, if anyone is interested in reviewing either the terrific content or my horrible cowlick.

Well, the group — which has reached almost 50 members — is finally gearing up for their first official meeting. If you’re interested in going, we have all you need to know right here.

When: April 16 from 1 - 2:30 p.m.
Where: Reitz Union, Rm. 361
Why:
Discussion topics

• Why are we here?
• The purpose of the CDG
• Branding the CDG
• Social and Community: What’s the best possible method of communication?
• Any other topics that you want to discuss

From Kirby: “Take some time to think about how we, as a group, can make the CDG a success. This is a great opportunity for all of us to make a difference and to learn from one another. I hope you share my enthusiasm.”

Creative Design Group Flyer

Prentiss Ladkani from the College of Education

“Take a good, hard look at your site and let's be brutally honest with each other. Are you using HTML tags correctly? Have you really sat down and gotten to know your content on a personal level? Have you even THOUGHT about the key words your users may be trying use to find your site? If you’re having trouble with people searching for your site, chances are, it’s not them, it’s you! Learn easy (and FREE) tips to getting better search rankings for your website.”

Carl Smith from The nGenWorks Company

“While much has been written on usability and user experience, very few address the problem from this perspective: What has been proven in conclusive testing and research to stop users in their tracks?

Smith reviews usability tips that hurt a user’s online experience based on two criteria: strength of evidence and relative importance to the user.

Afterall, if it’s important but you can’t prove it, or if you can prove it but it’s not important, who really cares?”

Joe Spooner from UF Web Administration

“The goal of my presentation is to help other webmasters to become fully aware of the bigger picture of web analytics. Lately, there’s been a lot of interest in Google Analytics as a tool to better inform webmasters of their web site usage. My presentation will focus on critically thinking about the usage of a site through quantitative and qualitative testing and analysis.”

Dave Stanton from the College of Journalism and Communications

“Usability is a term so simple in its definition but utterly complex in terms of application and measurement. We can and should leverage design to make interfaces both usable and enjoyable.

The human brain is great at assembling seemingly disparate pieces of visual information into a cohesive whole. Information structures are detected based on prior experiences and repetition. Knowledge is associated and stored. These processes happen quickly and recursively, but the brain has finite resources to multitask.

This talk will give you a primer on how the eyes serve as the gateway to the brain. The jargon will be kept at a minimum. Instead, the focus will be toward common examples to help you make better structural and design choices.”

For those of you not attending the actual event, check out Web Admin’s site where we will be live streaming the event and our Twitter feed where we will live blog and have some back-channel communication.

Please be aware, these archives are only available until April 3rd.

UF Web Administration would like to give a shoutout to the winners of the 2009 Golden Gator awards:

• Golden Gator
  • Think Before You Ink Campaign
    UFCN
    Contributors: Jeff Stevens, Dan Williams, Nicole Cisneros McKeen, Cinnamon Bair, Buffly Lockette, Kimberley Mansfield
• Silver Gator
  • College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
    Contributors: Jeff Stevens, Jane Dominguez, Margaret Fields
  • Career Resource Center Annual Report
    Contributors: Cory Monteiro, Nadene Francis
  • Explore Magazine
    Contributors: Joseph Kays, Paul Messal, Katherine Kinsley-Momberger
  • College of Law
    Contributors: Lindy McCollum-Brounley, Matthew Gonzalez, Katie Blasewitz, Debra Amirin, Gary Ritzenthaler, Hedda Prochaska
  • Public Utility Research Center
    Contributors: Rossana Passaniti, Patti Casey, Catie Banks, J.C. Marvin, Ben Simons, Charlie Hairston, Mary Homick, Lori Gregor, Mike Chale, Bree Jung

Congratulations, everyone!