The Data of Contextual Intelligence In the 1960s, computers were introduced to marketing departments. Essentially, their purpose was to pull in all sorts of data, “normalize” it in relational databases and make it available for query. This enabled marketers to begin to understand the science behind segmentation. Over time, whole companies like Experian, Axciom and Nielsen emerged becoming data aggregators. Today they provide this data to brands as a service, essentially appending the data … [Read more...]

Dear Ms. FEWD, I have a website being managed in a CMS. I’ve read your past articles about how you should separate content from presentation. But, what if the presentation is managed as content? For instance, if the Content Author needed to change background images, colors, or even font treatments, when would you create classes vs utilizing inline styles? Thanks, You down with CMP? (Yeah, you know me) _____________ Dear CMP, When presentation is managed as content, we have three real … [Read more...]

‘Uncle Bob’ wrote the following in Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship: “The ratio of time spent reading (code) versus writing is well over 10 to 1 … (therefore) making it easy to read makes it easier to write.” So think about that when you write your next bit of code. You need to make sure your code is easily readable and understandable for others, you hardly ever write code just for yourself. Readable unit tests Unit test code is no different than ‘production’ code. … [Read more...]

Image by Colin Dear Ms. FEWD, I need you to settle an argument between a colleague and I. When it comes to websites - should the logo be wrapped in an h1? Thanks! H1 or not h1 … that is the question ______________ Dear H1, The answer is: it depends. The h-tags are no longer used to define sizes of fonts, as we can do the styling through CSS. These days, these tags are used to define pieces of the site in a semantic and understandable hierarchy of importance, with h1 being most important … [Read more...]

When I was asked to create a new blog around “What’s happening in DAM?” I didn’t know what to say. Those of you who know me would find this very strange as I am never short of an opinion! This situation was no different, I had so much I wanted to say about DAM that I just didn’t know where to start. So, I am now going to make a commitment to provide an update to our chief blog whip every couple of weeks with another snippet of information feeding back a whole host of things I have learnt over … [Read more...]

More and more it seems, online publishers (yes, you are a publisher) are publishing content without showing a (prominent) last-modified date. Why is that? And, more importantly, should you follow suit? Why hide the date? Without asking each and every one for the rationale behind this choice, I can make an educated guess: For most readers, the date strongly indicates the content's relevance. If you are doing online research, would you take the time to read a SEO piece from 2013? Would you read … [Read more...]

Photo by Mark Sebastian "Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book."—Novelist John Green In my lifetime, I’ve been fortunate enough to cross paths with such rare books. Those experiences manifested cravings for words that shatter worlds and an ongoing pursuit of content that is bold, inspiring and thought provoking. That pursuit … [Read more...]

Providing contextually relevant information to your customers is a constantly evolving landscape. New challenges and features are always popping up. This week, I happened to come across an interesting example of some of the nuances of serving your customers, now that Google Inbox has been released. The premise of Google Inbox and other similar apps is that it provides a unique layer of helpful information over your emails, empowering you as a customer to manage your email better. At least … [Read more...]