Chris points out the problem with most CMSs is that they are really only useful to Web people, those who have experience with working with Web sites. WordPress is Chris’ favorite CMS and mine as well. But as I have done more development with WordPress, I see that is does fall short in really empowering content owners in the way that I would want.

A possible solution: “light” CMSs. There are a growing number of these solutions available on the market today. Several of them are free services and at least one of them costs money. One of the reasons that I like WordPress is that it is free, open source software that is continually developed. The price is right for the non-profit organization I work for.

These light CMS solutions contain less features which make them simpler, and I believe, a better user experience for the content owner.

Here are the light CMS solutions that Chris highlights in his article:

• Unify — Currently in private beta. It is a product of Unit Interactive which is headed up by Andy Rutledge, one of the designers I follow on Twitter and RSS. I was not able to take a close look at it.
• Cushy CMS — this seems to be the first player in the light CMS. It is a free service.
• Page Lime — in free public beta. It has a visual editor and reminded me of Contribute.
• Perch — I really like their Web site and they have great documentation. Perch costs about $57 per domain. You host it on your own server.

Anna Debenham reviewed Perch on this week’s Boagworld Podcast. She has also used Cushy CMS. She pointed out that the major advantage of using Perch over Cushy CMS is that the files are all hosted on your own server with Perch. She had problems with the Cushy CMS server going down which meant the service was unavailable. PageLime is also hosted on their servers.

Cushy CMS, PageLime, and Perch have videos introductions about their service and good documentation to get started. It seems pretty easy to implement any of these three solutions. Cushy CMS and PageLime involve adding classes to your HTML code. Perch involved using specific PHP tags and reminded me a lot of WordPress.

From the little research I did this afternoon, I believe that Perch would be the product that I would choose. Yes, it costs money, but the big advantage is that you don’t have to worry about another server going down that you have no control over. As I mentioned, some of it’s features remind me of WordPress. It would take more technical knowledge to setup Perch. It looks like their templating system is quite powerful and gives more control to the Web designer or developer. But the advantage it has over WordPress is it’s simpler interface for the content owner.

One final note: I really liked Perch’s site. It has nice texture and illustration. It uses JQuery for some fun animated effects. The birds in the tree at the bottom animate and move into the screen on pages where you can see the footer right away.

A very telling video about what the average person is thinking when they use the Web. I listened to an interesting discussion about this subject on Sitepoint’s podcast.

I think the reason there is confusion about the difference between a browser and a search engine is the integration of search into the Web browser. Search is the function that users do the most of. I could see why they don’t understand the difference.

I believe this video is evidence that a lot of people are not so concerned about which browser they use and will probably stick with their default. Web designers are going to still have to consider IE6 for a long time and then determine what strategy to employ with IE6.

One strategy that I am investigating is Andy Clarke’s Universal IE6 CSS. I have implemented it on this site. I like the idea of serving up the user the basic content without styling.

BTW, a browser is software that you use to view Web pages. The more popular browsers include Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Chrome.

A search engine is a Web site that you use to search for things on the Internet. Two of the most popular are Google and Yahoo. Many modern Web browsers use Google when you use the Search box in the right hand corner of the browser.

Thanks for the honor, Inspiredology.

Yesterday afternoon, I received this email from raysbaseball.com. I had bought tickets over the weekend to see today’s game.

I was really impressed with the information in this email. It told me about the starting pitchers for both teams and had links to relevant statistics. There were also links to information about visiting Tropicana Field. And it was information relevant to have a better experience at the baseball game.

This is a great example of thinking beyond your Web site and having a Web strategy. It utilizes other technology means to enhance the experience of the product, a Major League baseball game.

Paul Boag recently posted 10 ways to put your content in front of more people. This email is a fine example of what Paul was mentioning.

This Website caught my eye yesterday as I was looking through entries on CSS Mania. I posted this screenshot on Flickr. I did a pretty extensive commentary on Flickr in the summary and using the notes feature to point out different elements on the page.

What I really like about this site is the sense of dimension that it has. The designer used texture, shadow and highlights to make this design come alive. A couple of horizontal elements look like they fold behind the main content area and this adds to the illusion of dimension. I also liked the color scheme of this site.  Nice work FortySeven Media.

Sidenote — I was excited a couple of weeks ago when CSS Mania posted my design for Big-Break.com.

I like the different mediums that this cartoonist uses and how they help communicate his message. The Red Bull can is very appropriate for this cartoon.

Here is the site’s description:

The Internet Archive is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public.

First, You have to go to the top right to a “home” graphic to link back to the home from a secondary page. It took me several seconds to figure out how to get back to the homepage when I got deeper in the site. I would suggest making the site branding into a link back to the homepage which is a common practice.

Second, the polaroid photos in the Flash animation eventually cover up the last parts of the sentences in the welcome message. Not a good practice to cover up text that is conveying a message. A small but important detail to make sure one page element does not overlap another and make it unreadable.

This site serves as a reminder to me that elegant design needs to also be usable and think about the experience of the user. Sites “behave,” they are not just an artistic canvas. I want to be able to create sites that are elegant and provide a good user experience.

Given all that, I do like the visual design of this site. The monochromatic is nice and gives character to what the Web site is promoting so I think it does a good job of visual communication. The photos look even more vibrant because they introduce other colors into this brown palette. I also like the “realness” feel of the site and real world objects such as the photos, tape, paper, and passport.

This site is drawing you into the world of being a student at Baldwin Wallace. Jared Spool classifies this kind of content as Inukshuk content (see previous post to find out more about Inukshuk content).

One thing that got my attention is that it looks like once you are a student at this college, you are able to create an “action plan” online that your professors access and make recommendations based on what is in that action plan. I think this site uses Flash well to create a good user experience as you meet 4 different students and hear their stories.

• Right navigation on the secondary pages
• Overhanging graphic on that navigation bar that indicated “you are here”
• Colored drop down boxes of links on the horizontal navigation bar. The designer uses the same color for a “stripe” that goes down the left side of the page and for the background of the secondary page right navigation
• Use of sIFR for page titles
• Color palette and “feel” of the site

I found that the information on the on “how to get in” for first time students. I think they answered the questions that prospective students would have. I think that the two column content that reminded me of print worked well on this page because it is short enough. Because the information is in two columns, it was easy to scan and see what information was addressed.

On some longer content pages, the two column format did not work as well because you have to scroll back up to read the content in the right column.

Overall, I liked the site and it is a good example of good design and usability coming together.

This site caught my eye both from a design standpoint and because of the product it sells.

I sat through many design “crits” as an architecture student. This product would have been very useful. I can see using in my office with some of the stools that I like to use on days I feel like raising my desk.

I also like the design concept of this site. I have tried this approach of using real world objects in some of my designs and design ideas.

http://critbuns.com

http://www.haus-hoyer.de/

I came across this site through Design Meltdown. What I liked is that it used Javascipting to allow you to bring layers “forward.” You can click on the business card on the right and it comes forward. I later discovered that you can drag all the elements around the page.

I am not sure how valuable the ability to do this is on a site but there is a coolness factor. Because I do not know German, I cannot really judge the site on its content and how the behavior enhances or takes away from the site.

You can take a tour of the new features which uses Flash video. It combines screenshots, animation, video of Martha and her voice over. I was wowed by the first experience I had with the site. I particularly liked a “Photo Gallery” module that uses CSS and Javascripting. I would love to learn how to do that.