You've worked hard, sacrificed nights and weekends, your site is out there for users to click around in, the beer from the launch party is now flat. And yet, there is an outstanding list of design bugs that goes around the corner. Columns are uneven, colors "off" from spec, fonts the wrong size, links going to the wrong places if working at all. Hmmmm... Obviously, something is wrong. Everyone is saying the site is live and celebrating, but it looks... unprofessional and not representative of the team's best work.

I'll state the obvious that this is not where anyone wants to be in this business. So, how to deliver quality each and every time? This post looks at each major role in the creation process and posits the questions that need to be asked individually to keep professional-level design a strategic priority.

Over at InfoQ, they are debating whether it's worth while to support Internet Explorer 6 anymore. The article details several online serivices, vendors, and developmental frameworks that are pulling support, arguing that the browser that once made up 95% of the market share is no longer an online player now that Internet Explorer is on the scene.

On the one hand, deciding not to support IE6 and embracing Web standards can make it easier to create Web sites, expand your design possibilities, and generally allow for a better experience. On the down side, if you do go with a Web standards compliant site and ignore IE6, these sites do not tend to degrade gracefully and many users on the older browser can get frustrated. Any thoughts about what we should do?

The Web is always changing and so is Web Design. Whether you just got out of design school or have been pushing pixels for decades, there's always something new to learn.

Every other Thursday, AOL presents speakers who will help you stay on the cutting edge of your profession, hone your skills, understand industry best practices and keep you ahead of the competition. We'll meet 12PM-1:30PM on alternating Thursdays in Dulles and New York to hear about new and advanced topics in Web design.

As a special bonus, the first session comes with lunch provided free! Expand your knowledge of Web Typography and fill your stomach! Who could pass that up?

If you plan to attend, please RSVP Jason Cranford Teague (j.cranfordteague@corp.aol.com) at least 24 hours in advance of the meet-up.

Click "Read More" for session dates and descriptions.

Since our website redesigns last year, our main pages have been re-fitted with a promotional module called "Cards on the Table" (or "CoTT" for short). This was a replacement for the classic "Dynamic Lead" module (the usual giant animated picture with text that seems ubiquitous on programming websites across the Web). I based the design on the simple notion that quickly exposing a site's value at the top of the page was a good thing for a time-starved audience. Since users don't have time for animations and rarely use controls to see more promotions, we had to come up with a new strategy to reach an audience skeptical that our sites had value. This post explains the design challenge of the new dynamic lead from a variety of angles and the outcomes.

please click "read more" for the goods...

In AOL Programming we have a document that should be used at kickoff meetings to align multi-disciplinary teams to the mission at hand. It is our take on the classic agency document called a creative brief. Briefs serve the purpose of aligning team members around core strategic principles without inhibiting their creativity in finding a solution.

Click "read more" for my take on the Creative Brief.

PIXCETERA is a fully fleshed-out celebration of the craft of photography and has, as its central innovation, the ability to dynamically "read" galleries being published across the AOL network and consolidate them into one website (some innovations are not so obvious). Our users clicked billions of photos last year so we're hopeful that bringing all of this amazing programming work into one website fulfills an unmet need for them.

It is important to note that the site is not trying to compete with flickr as a UGC play (I myself am a faithful user of the site). Though we do have plans for user upload and gallery publishing and favorites, the main concept here is to bring the best programmed photography experiences in our network into one simple interface and provide the user the ability to "skip" across topics effortlessly.

One of my favorite little features is the ability to reskin the interface to white, gray or black so you can view photos in your own neutral tone of choice.

We've only just begun so expect some interesting innovations out of the pixcetera team over the coming months. And please let us know what you think.

AOL Television has an informative microsite dedicated to the show America cannot get enough of: Idol. But whether or not you are totally sick of Simon Cowell (um, like me), or hanging on every potentially off note you'll dig this nice poll interface. Though we have been using this format for some time, somehow the team keeps making it more and more interesting visually. Great build and drama in the movements. Check it out.

Click "read more" to see all the new features...

We recently launched a redesigned Home experience (http://home.aol.com), highlighting decorating, entertaining and do-it-yourself tips from many of the content leaders in this space. Our redesign has increased monthly page view traffic by a whopping 2100% since launch (and almost 800% since this time last year).

One of the biggest internal successes of this project was how we fine-tuned our design process to save a ton of time while ensuring a more satisfying work experience and tested our creative concepts to ensure we would resonate with our audience. Here's how we did it (click "read more")

AOL News recently launched a new printing experience that comes through a partnership with HP.

As you can see from the screen shot the user has the ability to choose special formats (called "recipes") for printing. A PDF file is then generated for the actual printing. Bill Knight, our Creative Director for Information websites, and his team are now solving a more prominent design integration of print within our article templates now that the experience is world-class. We'll post about that when it is ready.

From a technical perspective the Tabblo-powered technology was very easy to integrate (you can check out their website to see more about this technology).

Why is HP giving this tech away? Their branding goals are to attain mind-share relative to "ownership" of smooth printing experiences on the Web. "HP's goal is to make printing content from the web the easiest and best experience possible for people – whether they are printing a simple map or a book of their favorite blogs," said Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president, Imaging and Printing Group, HP. Of course, we're now working on further integrations into the Weblogs properties.

You can also find an HP print integration within our AOL Food website on the recipe pages.

After almost a year of design and development the AOL Music team has recently launched our first "long-tail" next generation photo experience (Phase 1). From the global navigation on the music site you'll see a new "Pictures" link that takes you to a hub showing the most recent and most watched photographic assets coming in from our partner feeds. Within each artist page is also a contextual left nav link that will take you to a dynamically generated photo stream of assets for that artist. The sample above shows the screen after I clicked "enlarge" next to a photo a Prince. On the left nav the user can browse the photos via alphabetical index or by genres of artist. Note also the clear and "extra-large" colored buttons to queue the user to the navigation, a detail but a significant one when your main mission is to keep the user clicking.

Click "more"...

This post is from our own Wayman Luy, the visual design lead of Black Voices:

"BV is the leading website for the African-American community, a double-edged sword when starting a redesign. That #1 ranking comes from having 4 million unique visitors and up to 49 million page views a month (BlackPlanet is #2 with 2.6 Million UVs and BET is #3 with 1.7 Million UVs). Users and owners alike are comfortable with the site (flaws and all) and reluctant to change. To complete the redesign, the team needed to merge 4 distinct platforms into one seamless experience. And most importantly it had to fulfill its purpose as a destination for African-Americans to come together, discuss, and be heard.

Click "Read More" for additional info on the redesign...

As 2007 comes to a close, we've been compiling data on the design work that our team has created this year. I must say that it's been such a pleasure to see the great results that all of our hard work has generated. Here's a snapshot of some of our 2007 projects. Use the interactive timeline below to explore the work.

I am very pleased to showcase the new Oscars package currently live today on Moviefone. This is just the first phase of an orchestrated program that leads to the big night (and beyond). The editorial, design and technical teams have done a great job in executing this from our recently completed CSS templates for Awards and Events. Click the "read more" button for additional commentary...

When I published my little article on Boxes and Arrows back in ...June? July? (well, a long time ago anyway), I had no idea folks would still be talking about it in November. I've been interviewed twice in the past few weeks about issues around user's scrolling behaviors--it's been alot of fun!

One was recorded for a Boxes and Arrows podcast and can be heard here: http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/blasting-the-myth-of16

And the other was for this article written by Terry Heaton of AR&D about the evolution of News as a product and how companies should integrate news into their content strategy: News is a Process, Not a Finished Product


I'm enjoying the debate, so keep those opposing thoughts coming...