Noscope

Noteworthies: Tying the Past to the Present

October 22nd, 2005 by Joen usability, wordpress

Not days ago, Jonas Rabbe put out a challenge:

On the subject of redesigns I put it to the great minds here to consider a design (both visual and structural) which ties the past of the blog better into the present without being too cluttered. (Source)

Not only do I accept his challenge, but I pass it on to you too!

1: Visual Noteworthies

My first response to this challenge is to bring noteworthy entries back to the top. See the index page:

“First time here? Read noteworthy entries or view illustrations.”

Now move your eyes to the top right of this entry. See the ♥? Just like all other weblogs that make good use of “noteworthies”, I now visually distinguish material worth reading/watching.

2: Noteworthies to the Top of Categories

Categories have been refined following Mr. Nielsen’s advice:

On the main page for each category, highlight that category’s evergreens as well as a time line of its most recent postings.

Have a look at, for instance, the Usability category. Notice how noteworthy posts are topmost, and full-text? That’s right, posts not deemed noteworthy are limted to excerpts in the bottom.

Bottom-most posts are now also dimmed in style.

3: Ultra-short Excerpts

Following advice from Giles, I’ve added ultra-short, visually distinct excerpts to articles. These excerpts will be visible on archive pages.

Right now it’s only added to the article you’re looking at, but I hope to write excerpts to all articles in the future. Hence, you can expect the current styling to be refined a bit.

4: Less Focus on Timestamps

Based on discussion elsewhere, I’ve chosen to put much less focus on post timestamps. Timestamps is now only visible on the main index page and in the sidebar as meta information. Category archives no longer show time-stamps—it’s an archive after all.

5: Show Post Updated Timestamp

I have added a timestamp to post meta information that shows the date when the article was last updated. Take a look.

Wishlist

I have further ideas on how to bring activity to past entries. The following is a list of things I believe could help, but are currently (to my knowledge) impossible in Wordpress. If you are a plugin author, feel free to pick up one of these ideas and realise them:

• Subscribe to Comments 2 feature: Notify Who?
  People won’t join a discussion they think is dead. Add the ability to display a list of people who are currently subscribing to a particular entry. I believe that showing this list near the comment form would increase transparency as to who would be reading a comment left on a past entry.

  Update: Mark, the author of Subscribe to Comments 2, generously granted my wish. For the end result, look right below the comment “Post” button.

• “Since Last Visit” Plugin

Track weblog “activity”. Track new and/or updated pages. Track entries with intermittent comments. Track new comments to entries older than x days. Let each tracked item have a configurable value (i.e. I would value updated material over comments), and save these values in end-user cookies. Use these cookies to compile a list of changes since that users last visit.

• Ability to edit comments (without the need of login)

When a user leaves a comment, save a cookie for that user that contains the privileges for him/her to edit or delete his/her last comment. The idea that what you say will stay there forever, is haunting.

Your Move

Can you tie the past to the present? Do you dare pick up the challenge? If so, then it’s your move!

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