I recently launched a new web site for Robert Eatman Enterprises. Robert Eatman is an agent for radio talent, aka on-air personalities, aka DJs. The site represent a pretty strong step in a slightly new direction for Telos Studios. It has a Content Management System based on the Symfony framework. The site is also uses some other modern techniques - more on this in a bit.

A few words about a CMS vs. a framework

A Content Management System is a great way of managing relatively generic content that has no strong semantic relationship to other content. A CMS, like WordPress - a specialized blogging CMS, works well for managing general content, but when you want more advanced possibilities designing the content structures requires more flexibility than a CMS can handle.

In contrast, a framework is not really meant for general content, but, because of a framework’s flexibility, a CMS can be designed into the system. In addition, a framework also allows for very specific datasets. I prefer this. It allows me to design a generic content module and makes it easier to design structures for specific data. This is really handy when design content for membership rosters, tagging data, calendar events, and much more. Essentially, there is a lot of power in a framework that most CMSes don’t allow for without some serious manipulation of the core models.

Techniques uses on Eatman

Beyond the framework based site, the Robert Eatman web site uses these techniques:

• SIFr
• IE PNG Fix
• CSS image replacement

All in all, I am pretty happy with the site and the fact that I am settling on some techniques that should make it easy to create custom web sites much easier.

Web 2.0 has been in full swing for a good year or so now. Lots of modern, advanced frameworks and best practices have come to light to fully take advantage of the Web 2.0 trends. Of those best practices, I would like to briefly address the notion of Progressive Enhancements and Graceful Degradation.

Progressive Enhancement and Graceful Degradation are complimentary practices. If a Progressive Enhancement won’t work, it should degrade gracefully. Some have said that
Progressive Enhancement has its limitations. True. When designing an interface, JavaScript can create such a easy and seamless interface that the non-enhanced version will have to be radically different. Also true. This, in my mind, is when Graceful Degradation comes into play. If a system fails, it must do so while being usable as long as possible. In other words, if JavaScript is disabled, a user interface should still work with traditional client-server requests.

Here is a quick view of some sites and modules that rely on PE and sometimes GD.

The Good

These modules degrade gracefully when JavaScript is disabled.

• Gmail - A standard version is available if JavaScript is disabled.
• Apple Video - When JavaScript is disabled, a message to enable JavaScript is displayed. Plus the option to download the video is available.

The Bad

These sites do not degrade gracefully when JavaScript is disabled.

• CNN Video - Sorry CNN. I love the new site, but video and other things fail when JavaScript is disabled.
• YouTube - Much like Apple, a message is displayed when you don’t have the appropriate technologies, but they do not offer a downloadable version of the video.

All in all this is a tough situation. A lot of time, resources, and money are required to fully implement a well PEGD web site. Trade-offs and priorities will ultimately win the current battle until more frameworks and best practices surface enough to become common place techniques for dealing with complex interaction solutions.

After a short beta period, CNN has updated their web site. And it is beautiful. I love the new site. They have integrated video throughout it in a simple, seamless manner. The color scheme is simple and unobtrusive, yet not boring like the new LJWorld web site. The navigation is easy to understand, and they have helpful navigation structures like “hot topics” and “We Recommend.” Articles are clean and flow well. The “story highlights” make getting the gist of a story quick. The tabs for getting the article text or video works without a hitch. The text could use a little more line-height (or leading for you in the print world) and there is an occasional bit of graphics bleeding into the text. All in all, this is one very well done redesign. Congratulations CNN.