User names and passwords

I think I'm reaching the saturation point when it comes to user names and passwords. I say this because I experienced an incident of computer rage last week, and I was the one doing the raging! Me. Middle-aged, mild-mannered Dee. It happened when I tried to join Twitter.

“It’s your turn. Join Twitter.” This was the cheerful greeting on  Twitter's "Create an Account" web page. I started by typing in user names that reflected my real name but kept getting the message “X This user name is already taken!” After a dozen failed attempts, I found myself entering expletives that frustrated, irate drivers would scream out their car windows at offending fellow motorists! Somewhere in the back of my mind I wondered if the Internet police would suddenly revoke my access privileges, but I was beyond caring. And with every profane entry I made, the same infuriating message appeared - “X This user name is already taken!”

I finally changed my tactics. Abandoning profanity for cynicism, I entered the user name “crowsdonttweet” and received the happy news, “User name is available.” Shortening the name to “crowsdont,” I finished off my Twitter profile with a photo of an American crow cawing, and shut down my computer with smug satisfaction.

I suspect my angry outburst stemmed from the increasing complexity of maintaining an online presence while successfully avoiding cyber crooks. A couple of months back, it took me many tries to generate a password deemed strong enough to be acceptable on WordPress. We’re not talking about a bank website. I was just joining a blog for middle-aged women discussing Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way! 

Password security experts now recommend that you don’t use dictionary words in any language. Think about that for a moment. It’s a remarkably sweeping restriction. In addition, they caution against using words spelled backwards, common misspellings, and abbreviations. Using personal information is, of course, a rookie mistake. And, once you’ve devised passwords stronger than the vaults at Fort Knox, be prepared to scrap them and generate new ones every three months!

A quick count tells me I’ve got at least twenty online log-ins. I wonder if the experts have any advice on how I’m supposed to remember all my non-mnemonic, ever-changing passwords, not to mention all those user names that bear no resemblance to my real name. My tech-savvy son would probably say, “Mom, there’s an app for that.”

You can find more information about impenetrable passwords and other computer security tips on the Microsoft website.

Favourite websites

The assigned topic for this post is favourite websites. I need to comment knowledgeably on two of them. The problem is, while I use websites for things like online banking, looking up movie show times, doing research for assignments, reserving library books, and registering for courses, I don’t think of them in terms of favourites. I really only take notice of a website when there’s something wrong with it.

What do I consider wrong in terms of websites? Here are a few pet peeves:

• advertising that flashes incessantly
• links that don’t work
• links that open a separate web browser
• sites that force you to navigate by clicking on "back"
• sites that require horizontal scrolling
•  sites that don’t provide the information users are expecting to find
•  sites that aren’t user-friendly or intuitive
•  sites that fail to balance usability with visual appeal (see website usability guru Jakob Nielsen’s site for example)

It’s too bad Google isn’t a website. I could go on and on about the virtues of my favourite search engine – the elegant simplicity of its design, the variety of search categories, the "define" and "synonym" search features, the "did you mean?" feature that compensates for fumble-fingered typists and people who can’t spell, the inventive banner redesigns commemorating special occasions, the … well, you see what I mean.

Website standards and usability

For anyone getting into the field of website creation and design, as I am, a little background knowledge is in order.

The World Wide Web was the brainchild of Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist that Time magazine ranks among the top 100 minds of the century. In much the same way that Gutenberg’s printing press impacted society, Berners-Lee’s Web has brought profound changes to the way we conduct business, find and share information, socialize, and communicate.

To establish international Web standards and manage its growth and development, Berners-Lee founded and heads the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an organization consisting of member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public. The significance of the W3C, for anyone involved in creating websites, is that this governing body dictates both HTML and CSS standards.

Another person of influence, with regards to website design, is Jakob Nielsen, one of the world’s leading web usability consultants. Nielsen has published a number of books on web usability and website design and also issues a biweekly column, Alertbox, on usability issues. Follow this link to read what he considers to be the top ten mistakes in web design.  

College website comparison

This week’s instalment is a comparison of the Langara College, Capilano University, and Douglas College websites. 

People who use college websites are usually seeking specific information. Prospective students may want to know about programs offered or how to apply for admission while current students often need to pay fees, check registration dates, find out what textbooks they need, or access online library resources. Visual appeal is nice but the essential feature of a user-friendly website is quick and easy access to all college-related information.

The Capilano website does the best job of achieving this objective. Information links are grouped in logical categories – "Who Are You?" "Studying at Cap," "Admissions," etc. All of the site's web pages share the same basic layout. Site visitors are spared the effort of reorienting to different layouts while navigating from one web page to another. The same horizontal menu bar atop each page means never having to resort to the back button. And the search option is always locked in its traditional spot – the upper right hand corner of the screen.

The Langara and Douglas websites pale by comparison. On their homepages, both sacrifice functionality and consistency for the sake of visual appeal with large, space-consuming pictures. Langara, at least, establishes some consistency in page layout once you get past the homepage. Douglas, alas, runs a distant third in this contest with its new website design that sports a different look on almost every page. Lack of consistency on the Douglas site presents challenges most website users could live without.    

    

In search of engaging blogs...

I begin my journey into the world of blogging by recommending two blogs that I enjoy.

Jules Torti is a free spirit and intrepid adventurer whose blog Alphabet Soup has earned her a loyal following. Torti’s unique descriptive style engages readers on a sensory level, immersing them in globe-trotting experiences – the grandeur of the Canadian Rockies,  Africa’s perilous wonders, the exotically diverse Galapagos Islands, and more. Learn what it’s like to eat termites and goat testicles. Find out if sleeping in an ice hotel or a jungle hut might appeal to you. Torti’s stories are sure to intrigue and entertain armchair travelers and real-life adventurers alike. Her posts also include book, play, and restaurant reviews, as well as contemplative pieces on what she calls “the emotional geography that unfolds the map in new directions each day.”

My second blog recommendation stems from a series of serendipitous circumstances. On a recent bookstore excursion, I found a Robertson Davies biography. Curious about the book's author, I flipped to the back inside cover and was surprised to read that Val Ross, the middle-aged Canadian freelance journalist pictured there, had died in 2008. Compelled to learn more, I searched her name that evening on the computer and Rona Maynard’s blog surfaced with the story "When my best friend died." Maynard’s beautifully written homage embodied the fundamental truths of friendship, in all its complexities, and I wept for her loss. I’ve visited the blog several times since and always find relevant, compelling posts written in Maynard’s relaxed, down-to-earth style.

Just to bring that serendipitous set of circumstances full circle, it was Rona Maynard’s mentoring advice that got Jules Torti started on the road to blogdom.

Happy reading, everyone.