Listening Post: Achieving altitude

Heron taking off. Photo montage: Travelswithtwo via Flick, cc some rights reserved.

Sorry to be late this week with Listening Post. Coping with fallout from the new design launch has kept me a little crazed. Sites the size and complexity of NCPR launch the way a heron takes off. It takes a while, and you wonder how it ever actually gets into the air. Right now, we’re at the point where the heron is airborne, but the wings are still splashing the water on the downbeat. Thanks for your patience–surely we’ll hit treetop level eventually.

While I am the loudmouth of the web dept., the real credit for the new design has to go to my low-profile partner, Bill Haenel, NCPR’s new media developer, who has been working this up for over a year now. The truth is, a modern website cannot be built without a vast iceberg of code hidden below the surface, but so integrated with the design of the whole that foundation and superstructure are all of a piece. This level of web mastery has surpassed the talents of this superannuated English major, and NCPR is fortunate to have someone like Bill, charting out and absorbing (and in some cases inventing) the new technology. And it doesn’t hurt a bit that he also has a great design sense, and a feel for usability issues.

We are going to be in tweaking and shakedown mode, I expect, for months more. Please continue to let us know where you see problems, things that should work but don’t, things you used to rely on but can’t find, etc. The end result is intended to be more–not less, and easier–not a frustration. So don’t be shy. And if there are new things you think we should be doing, but aren’t–tell us that, too. The best time for more change is when you’re in the middle of change mode.

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