Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with bestpractices

Help me give better technical support

d. z. wang — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 16:31:11 -0800

When did you have a great interaction with technical support, and what did the technician do to make the experience better? In-person encounters preferred, but call-ins also welcomed. I'd like to improve my tech support "bedside manner" by collecting anecdotes about people doing it right. Try to explain what the technician did and why you appreciated it. Bonus points if you are yourself very knowledgeable or very ignorant, and the technician was able to accommodate that.

Please exclude institutional aspects, because I can't really do anything about that.

If you have a really instructive example of someone doing it wrong in a very common way, and nobody has previously mentioned it, feel free to post that too. I would, however, prefer that this thread focus on the positive.

Art Gallery Web Sites?

crickets — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:55:09 -0800

Do you know of any art galleries with really great web sites? I'm not interested in museum sites, I'm interested in how small art galleries present their business and inventory online.

(Do you run an art gallery? What do you use your site for? What are people looking for when they visit it?)

Seeking best community-driven websites

Admiral Haddock — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 09:52:07 -0800

Looking for examples of websites that engage/inform/empower the communities and readers they serve. Examples include barackobama.com, greenforall.org and (in terms of content, not presentation/interface) this site for the UK Improvement and Development Agency. For a friend, I am looking for input on, and examples of, best practices in website design for organizations and institutions (but completely open to, say, the private sector or ad hoc projects, etc.) that inform and empower their community/readers.

Specific attributes and functions of interest include:
- a dynamic library / resource / research center
- incorporation of participatory technology (social media, wikis, etc.)
- dynamic translation of 2 languages (i.e. bilingual)

Additionally, are there any good resources on the net where (tech and/or non-tech) people discuss or critique projects like this (e.g., a blog that looks at community portals in web design)?

This question is entirely viewpoint/content neutral--I'm as interested in hearing about the Northern Michigan Bow Hunting Club as the Greater Osaka Chickens-as-Pets Collective.

How do I learn the Visual Studio way of thinking about software development?

majick — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:45:19 -0800

Visual Studio for the confused: I've inherited a C#/ASPX Net 1.1 application from what appears to have been some fairly low-skill software developers. The language, systems environment, and cleaning up the software itself aren't problems, but what the hell am I supposed to do with all this IDE stuff? I need learning resources. My previous software development experience has been with fundamental tools: Makefiles, gcc, Ant, javac, and scripted build processes. I've used IDEs before, but entirely for the purposes of coding and analysis, not build processes and SCM. The situation I find myself in now requires I come up to speed on the Visual Studio 2003 build system, and I'm finding it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever due to my lack of grounding in graphical build tools. It's further complicated by the way the tool seems to be conceptually tied to a web server for the purpose of development.

There seems to be a tremendous amount of magic hidden in things like "solution files" and "project files" and zillions of little "properties" windows that own metadata about dependencies and the source tree, and it's all very confusing for someone coming from a more traditional and modular software tools environment. Reverse engineering this stuff is sapping a tremendous amount of my time and productivity, especially since it seems like the previous folks on the project made assumptions about the build environment that are no longer true.

So what should I be reading that will give me a background on this Microsoft-flavored build environment so that I can get to the work at hand? I want to get this code into Subversion and make it buildable by anyone who can check it out, but that is looking more and more like I'm going to have to rejigger what happens when the Build button is pushed to remove hardcoded UNC pathnames of servers that don't exist, an almost arbitrary scattering of build prerequisites, and dependencies on having a web server at hand just to produce object code and a MSI installer.

Right now I'm coming up against something that seems like an alien artifact from a world where the definition of what a codebase is and how you build it happens to completely differ from my own. It seems completely ass-backwards every time I look at it and adds a layer of complexity that I'm unaccustomed to in my tools. Overcoming that barrier is going to be key to my short term success. What should I be reading to learn best practices about Microsoft-flavored development tools and fundamentals of the Visual Studio way of thinking about a software "solution" in order to put this codebase on track to be properly maintained? Where I come from, a couple of hours with a text editor, a fresh build script, and svn ci would have given me build automation, SCM, and code drop portability. Instead I'm in a maze of twisty little properties pages, all alike, and eliminating my ignorance is an important first step.

Please note that I'm not asking about tool choice. I can make tool decisions on my own. I'm looking for ways to educate myself on how what I have works as is, so I can make intelligent decisions about how to restructure and retool the project for maintainability and save a lot of pain for the next person who has to tend to this application. I work with that next person, and want to be nice to them by giving them a software project, toolchain and development process that Just Works.

Send that email, stat !

fizzix — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:34:14 -0800

I'm working for a newer growing, small business (4-5 employees or so). We have to send emails containing the same information to existing customers. For example, we have to notify customers about their accounts (for example, their CC/billing information becomes outdated) or customers send us a question. We're looking for an efficient way to do this. Right now, we want to send out emails more efficient and rich than our current system: using Apple Mail (our office is using Mac OS X Tiger, and will continue to use Tiger, and Leopard, once Tiger is no longer supported by Apple) having a templates folder, selecting the send again button and then inserting the person's email. More importantly, Apple Mail (to the best of my knowledge) doesn't send out emails in HTML. Also, the ability to edit these emails before we send them out (like, adding an extra sentence to it before hitting send).

Instead, my boss is looking for a system that would create more professional looking emails (ones that you get from an established web business) and will allow someone with no web development expertise to send them out to customers.

Related to this, is there a way to automate this so that an html version of the email, and a plain text version is also automatically generated ?
(For this second question, I'm hoping there's an easier way
than writing a script from scratch (I'm familiar with java, but I think that isn't appropriate for this) to assign the content that changes to variables, and then inserts the content to the variables in templates that already contain the formatting.)

Forms look like a way to go, but I'm not sure if javascript or PHP is a better way. I'm leaning towards php, because I read there's the ability to integrate php with sql, eventually creating a database record of customer interaction (phone calls, emails, etc).

EEO Uh-Oh Too Slow Gotta Go

thewalrusispaul — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 07:44:27 -0800

HR-Filter: Company I work for is looking to do a voluntary EEO Self-Identification Survey on 1,500 existing employees. Looking for ideas on "Best Practices." Read explanation for more. So, yeah. We haven't been so good about having our employees self-identify in the past. And I probably should be doing this on SHRM's website... But y'all are so great, I thought I'd give it a shot.

We're looking to collect voluntary data from an existing workforce in the easiest, most painless fashion. Yet, we want to stay within "Best Practices", considering the situation.

We have 1,500 employees scattered throughout the United States and are hoping to get this completed within the next month, as I believe the EEO-1 report is due the end of September.

Has anyone had to perform a mass survey or resurvey of existing employees? We're looking at maybe sending out a mass email with "read receipts." Can a read receipt without a returned survey be legally construed as someone who declined to answer the self-identification survey? Any ideas would be HIGHLY appreciated.

Thanks much!

IT Heads: Vista Business Best Practices on a Domain?

colecovizion — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:03:00 -0800

IT Heads: Vista Business Best Practices on a Domain? We're just about to replace about 30 machines on our small corporate network with new Dell Optiplex and Precision desktops. Despite my advice, people higher up than me have decided to buy these machines with Vista Business SP1 installed. I get the short end of the stick because I'm the one in charge of this roll out.

We're not doing anything fancy:
* Setting up machines on an existing Windows 2003 domain
* Setting up email in Outlook 2007 (upgrading from 97-2000 PSTs)
* On 9 systems, we're installing CAD software (Autocad Inventor 11, Mastercam X2)
* Set up network printers (mostly LaserJets)
* Windows Vista Business SP1 and Office 2007 Professional is already installed

I figured that since everything is on new hardware, issues will be minimized. However, I haven't had the extensive first hand experience with Vista that I've had with XP... and that's why I'm before you now.

What best practices would you recommend for setting up these machines (referenced with less opinion and more fact)? Are there still common major issues with Vista SP1 that I should be warned about? For example, I heard some horror stories about Vista congesting the local network. Lastly, are there any good resources where I can keep up with the latest Vista news?

Thanks for any advice... I'll need it!

How do you calculate the burden a bit of PHP is likely to put on the server?

Tuwa — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 22:06:27 -0800

How do you calculate the burden a bit of code is likely to put on the server? Extra points for free and easily understood. I'm webmaster of a ~100 page site with every page containing a sidebar. The sidebar has buttons on it which either link to that page if you're not on it or put a CSS class on the text if you are.

I'm in process of updating and streamlining the site. I'd like to remove the sidebar to (a new file) sidebar.php and use an include on all the other pages so that any time the sidebar changes I can change and reupload only one file rather than 100.

I know this can be done in Javascript, but I'd rather not. I'd like an option that works for *every* visitor, not simply the ones visiting in a Javascript-capable browser with Javascript turned on.

The code I was thinking of was something like
$here = $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];
if ($here == '/index.php')
print "Home";
else
print "Home";

It works, and I suspect it won't be a problem even though we have just a very basic hosting package and get about 5k page views a week. (The math: 5,000 page hits a week * 10 if/thens = 50k if/thens/week = 7153 if/thens a day = 297 an hour = 5 a minute = most likely not a problem.) But how do you know how much of that kind of access a host permits? At what point does it get their attention and/or ire?

Also, how do you calculate the burden of proposed code? Where does one go for that information? What do you do to make sure you're writing code that can handle a lot of traffic?

CSS Filter: making tight CSS files, style guides and learning best practices – help needed.

rmm — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 17:32:17 -0800

CSS Filter: making tight CSS files, style guides and learning best practices – help needed. My fellow CSS enthusiasts,

Here’s me with another ‘what’s the best way to do this’ or ‘is there a template for this’ type questions – it’s my curse in life to ask these! Basically I’d like to hear what folks do for best practices in CSS design (both layout and formatting). I'm not a full time coder - just someone very interested in the topic, and I’m trying to get my stuff looking more professional and to work even better, and think maybe marking up the, err, markup might help. So I have a multi part question:

- style guides: any good examples you’ve found. I’ve seen some examples here (a visual one, from Stuff and Nonsense and one over at Dave Shea’s site). Any other good examples you’ve used or created? I’d like, of course, to find a template to speed up annotating these. If you have style guides in general (HTML or anything else – doesn’t have to be CSS) please send them here as well. If you have other things you do besides an actual style guide, tips etc. share those as well, if you can.

- standards: other than creating accessible, compliant designs that satisfy the Validator (the evil W3 corrections site), what do you do to make your code more professional? I split up the layout from the formatting, but would like to know things that help make me a better designer – i.e. do you put things in a certain order in the stylesheet, etc. I know you combine selectors wherever possible – I’m looking for those kind of best practices or standards if you’ve got them. Any recommendations for favourite books, sites and blogs etc. for advanced designing in CSS are always appreciated. There are a slew of them, and I’m looking for good quality stuff – kind of like ‘practical CSS Zen Garden’ type resources. It’s one thing to actually view source – it’s another find someone talking about the source, which I find also helpful.

(I’d ask this over at a CSS forum like CSS Creator but I likes my MeFis, know some of you are designers and know that this is probably a better place for meta discussions of design, best practices, etc. – although if you know of a better forum, let me know that too).

thank you!

How to learn applied .NET from top to bottom?

debacle — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 21:13:37 -0800

Looking for resources on specific programming topics, with a particular teaching methodology (basically, applied examples and real-world walkthroughs). Some of the topics are C#-specific. Some are more general, but would preferably be taught from a C# (or at least .NET) perspective. A) The resources would preferably be in book form, however I'll take anything that fits further criteria.

B) If I need to refer to several resources to learn what I want to about one topic, that is OK - as long as the resource doesn't confusingly mingle the topic material with other material.

C) *Very* important is the teaching style. I'm *not* looking for a syntax reference, or simple "Hello World" examples on how to use each of the language features, etc., that I want to learn about. For the most part, I am interested in learning how these features can be applied from the ground up to solve real-world problems; and how to identify how each feature can be helpful in solving such problems.

D) Any text will make certain assumptions about the prior knowledge and experience of its readers. Ideally, these resources would make assumptions that are as close as possible to my own knowledge and experience.
1. I have quite a lot of real-world experience with C++ (but little with multithreading, network communication, or UIs).
2. I have written some small- and medium-sized tools in C#, with and without simple GUIs.
3. I have done some (annoying) work in managed C++, bridging a C# application with unmanaged C++, both static and dynamic libraries.
4. I know some basic principles of multi-threading, but have little hands-on experience with it.
5. I have only implemented simple GUIs, and the few I have made from scratch have been C#.
6. I have not substantially utilized any of the "higher-level" features of C# in my code (attributes, delegates, etc.).
7. I have only just started working with the new features in C# 2.0. Basically, all I have used are the built-in generics classes.
8. My Managed C++ experience is in VS7, but I have recently ported some of my existing code into VS8, which exposed me to some of the new keywords and syntax rules in MC++ 2.0.
9. Most of my .NET programming experience has felt like I was writing a C++ application with C# syntax. I don't know how to properly use the extra features that C# offers, so I stuck with what I know, while enjoying the streamlined development process.

E) That being considered, here is my list of topics:
1. General best practices for C# (from the ground up).
2. Design patterns in C#.
3. The features of C# that set it apart from languages like C++. Including: attributes, delegates, events, etc.
4. The new features/syntax of C# 2.0.
5. Managed C++, with a focus on how to properly use it to bridge unmanaged C++ to C#.
6. The new features/syntax of Managed C++ 2.0.
7. General multithreading resources, from the ground up (preferably from a C# perspective).
8. Multithreading specifically in C#.
9. C# UIs, from the ground up. Ideally, would move on to available open source extension packages such as DotNetMagic.
10. How multithreading can/should be applied to UIs (preferably from a C# perspective).
11. General socket and network communication resources, from the ground up (preferably from a C# perspective).
12. Sockets and network communication specifically in C#.

F) When I say "from the ground up", I mean, from the basics and *all the way up*. Basically I want these resources to provide me with the power to work on my own to gain the experience necessary to become a "guru" in these areas. Again, if it takes several resources to provide all of this for one topic, that's not a problem.

Where can I find best practices/recommendations/accessibility guidelines for video content?

cadge — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 15:07:46 -0800

I'm building a website that will offer some video content. Where can I find best practices/recommendations/accessibility guidelines for video content? I'm building a website that will offer primarily text/image content. Mr. Client wants to add some video clips to support the content. Mr. Client also wants my advice on producing this video content (what format, etc.).

[About this project: The site will be part of a university's website, and the content is intended for educators, especially K-12 instructors. It does not get heavy traffic. The video content will be downloadable, not streaming - at least for now.]

I don't have much multimedia experience, and I'm not even sure where to begin researching this. I tried Google and found scattered guidelines sites, but nothing that seemed like a definite authority.

Is there a site where I can find best practices, recommendations, and/or accessibility guidelines for offering video content online? Here are some of the questions I want to be able to answer:

* What format? Would it be OK to offer video in just Quicktime, or should we also offer various Windows formats?

* Should we display the video files inline on the page? Or should the user click to view them in a popup, so that no file conflict would interfere with the page loading (or am I talking total nonsense here)?

* Recommendations for lo-rez/hi-rez rates? And good ways to display this choice - would this lead to popups like I mentioned above?

* Compression rates? Other stats I don't know anything about but should?

* Optimal file sizes?

* Accessibility concerns? I would like to encourage them to be mindful of accessibility and do things like captioning, but it is a very small department with one person working on the content when he can.

Huuuuuuge thanks to anyone who can offer advice on this!

vinyl - friend or foe?

subpixel — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 06:03:00 -0800

i run an online store specializing in products made by independent designers, and i get loads of product submissions that use vinyl/PVC - handbags, purses, even furniture. i've long thought of vinyl as bad for the environment, and i've heard claims it's even unhealthy to handle. but the facts are hard to come by. now i've stumbled upon this article. so - should i rethink my assumption that vinyl is evil? from a business perspective, i sort of hope so, b/c some of the vinyl products i'm seeing are very cool...

Small-business Web Design

Hankins — Thu, 13 May 2004 07:57:53 -0800

When my company discusses web design service with potential clients, they generally *always* balk and get ornery about the cost. Most of the time, we're working for small businesses, so understandably, $5-$10k is a substantial chunk of change for people to shell out. We don't get upset when we lose bids for being too expensive because we've always been taught that compromising our rate is not the solution... you simply can't meet everyone's budget. That being said, we turn away enough people who expect websites to cost $500-$1500 that I think there might be a market supportive enough to create solutions for. [come inside, won'tcha?] That being said, we turn away enough people who expect websites to cost $500-$1500 that I think there might be a market supportive enough to create solutions for. The most important factor for us, however, is that it also be affordable for us to pursue as well, meaning minimizing deployment time and customer support issues (i.e. hand-holding).

In that light, we've thought about creating a template-based system that we could use to pop a company's logo in, change around the color scheme a bit, and add the site's text. We could then resort to a more "my nephew on geocities designs websites" tactic of charging for "website packages," like "4 pages, contact form, site statistics for $500," or "6 pages, news blog, contact form for $1000," etc.

As designers, we'd have to suck up our pride for not being able to put our custom design work to task, instead rolling out templates like a line-cook at Denny's, but I don't think we'd have a problem with that as long as it proved fruitful. Though perhaps preachy in perception, we fundamentally enjoy working with people and helping them solve their problems, so being able to help a wider audience without having to sacrifice our rent money is essentially the true nature of the beast. Additionally, it would allow us to improve our customer acquisition, which would benefit us in the long-term as well (selling to existing customers is easier than getting new customers).

Has anyone ventured into a similar pursuit? Would it be advisable to stick with the "less customers / higher-paying jobs" perspective, vs the "More customers / less-paying jobs?"

From a technical standpoint, can anyone recommend a good way to minimize the work at the development stage? I've thought about using MT and creating new blogs for each new client, but I don't know if that's overkill. Additionally, mambo & Typepad look like they would provide easier user interfaces for those unfamiliar to online publishing, but I'm not sure that either of these are the best for assembly-line site rollouts. Are there any CMS-like applications available to hosting providers that let them cross-sell web services along with hosting?