Version 2.7 of Search Meter, my free WordPress search statistics plugin, is now available. I have added four often-requested features:
- Duplicated recent searches are shown only once in the Recent Searches plugin
- You can now specify a list of filter words. Any searches containing these words will not show up in the recent and popular search widgets, even if the searches were successful
- Search links in the widgets will work correctly whether or not fancy permalinks are enabled
- The blog administrator can decide who is allowed to see full statistics: all logged-in users, authors and administrators, or administrators only
This version of Search Meter requires WordPress 2.3 or later. If you are still using an older version you should probably upgrade anyway, otherwise you can always use an older version of Search Meter.
Let me know how the new features work for you. If you have any comments or questions, just add a comment to this page.
23 May 10 —
2 comments
Subversion is a fine version control system, but unlike most others it does not allow tagging of files and directories. Its so-called “tag” functionality is really just a kludge, but if you understand its limitations it can still be useful. Continue reading “Subversion does not play tag” →
20 May 10 —
No comments
When designing Microsoft Money 2000, Microsoft followed a “new user interface model”, which they called inductive user interface (IUI). The Microsoft Inductive User Interface Guidelines are available on MSDN. I came across them a few months ago and thought they give a nice description of how to make simple, focussed applications screens, whether for a desktop or web application. I’ve summarised the main points here. Continue reading “Microsoft Inductive User Interface Guidelines” →
23 Feb 10 —
No comments
To mark World Usability Day 2009, here’s a review of a classic book on usability for web sites and applications. A lot of the information and advice seems obvious once you’ve read it, but judging by the websites that litter the web, it’s not always obvious when you’re building sites. If all web designers and developers read this book, the web would be a better place. And hey, it’s fun to read. Here are some of the book’s highlights. Continue reading “Don’t Make Me Think! — Steve Krug” →
12 Nov 09 —
No comments
Consider a Delete button in an application. Click the button and something gets deleted. But what if you click it by accident? Two approaches are commonly recommended:
- Confirm: Require the user to confirm the action before doing it
- Undo: Do the action immediately, but allow the user to undo it
The Confirm strategy offers the worst of both worlds. It slows down people who actually want to delete, and it fails to protect those who don’t. In contrast, the Undo strategy offers minimum impediment to purposeful users while making it easy to avoid losing work. Continue reading “Undo is better than Confirm” →
11 Nov 09 —
4 comments
Forms That Work is a practical book dedicated to making web forms usable and useful. It gathers a heap of information together, with helpful summaries and guidelines to make it easy to create web forms that people will actually use.
Here is a summary of some points that I found particularly helpful. This gives the flavour of the book and serves as a reminder for me at least. For all the background information, you’ll need to read the book itself.
Continue reading “Forms that Work — Jarrett & Gaffney” →
4 Nov 09 —
6 comments
I read this good short guide to writing for the web a year or two ago. Even though the book is a few years old now, its advice is still relevant: Web technologies change quickly, but the rules for good web writing are the same now as they were when the web was new.
I learned a lot from the sections on writing for international users, specifically for users who aren’t proficient at reading English. Short, active sentences without complicated words. It has helped me respond usefully to comments on this website, which has readers from all over the world.
6 Oct 09 —
3 comments
Version 2.6 of Search Meter, my WordPress search statistics plugin, is out now. This version has been upgraded to work with the latest version of PHP (5.3), and the search widgets now integrate better with WordPress 2.8 themes. The other change is that Search Meter should now work better on international websites — it now creates its database tables using the UTF-8 character encoding, which should work with non-Latin-based languages such as Chinese, Greek, Hebrew and so on.
You can upgrade your existing Search Meter from your WordPress administration interface, or go to the Search Meter page for more information.
1 Oct 09 —
1 comment
“Writing web content that works” is the subtitle of this book, and it delivers a thorough treatment of the topic. I don’t think it contains any radical new ideas, but it is a nicely organised compilation of what some people call “best practices” about writing and layout for the web.
Of course, you can’t possibly summarise an entire book with a list of bullet points, but here are the ideas in the book that struck me as being especially useful. Continue reading “Letting Go of the Words — Ginny Redish” →
1 Oct 09 —
1 comment
Donald Norman’s excellent book The Design of Everyday Things has some great ideas on design in general. I first read it 20 years ago — I’ve been re-reading it recently and it’s still a fun and relevant read. His wish list in the book includes prescient descriptions of the World Wide Web and the iPhone, amongst other things. But the thing that struck me was some very sensible and solid advice on error handling. It’s good advice whether you’re building a coffee maker or a web application. Continue reading “The Design of Everyday Things — Donald Norman” →
26 Sep 09 —
No comments